Buzzing Balkampet

By Mouli Mareedu

Being adjacent to Balanagar, Balkampet is keeping pace with industrialisation with a go ahead for high-rise constructions in the area.

Balkampet is one of the largest colonies in Hyderabad and the area has been developed commercially and residentially as it is adjacent to the industrial area- Balanagar. The area gains significance as people from many walks of life have made this place their home.After the construction of a 2 km-long flyover, connecting Sanathnagar, Balanagar and Balkampet, the area has become congested with traffic towards this area rapidly increasing.

“When the area continues to be the industrial hub of Balanagar, Balkampet also is becoming a small industrial place with many alloy, iron, and Pharma raw material firms setting up base here,” senior resident of Balkampet, Srinivas Yadav said. Previously Balkampet used to be called Bahadur Khan Guda. During the rule of the Nizam Nawabs, some brave Muslim youth from this locality provided security to the Nizam. Thus, people living in the locality started calling the area as Bahadur Khan Guda.

The area was divided in two parts, Bahadur Khan Guda (BK Guda) and Balkampet. “As many as 200 years ago, when my forefathers were digging for a bore well to facilitate water supply for cultivation purposes, they found some stones, which depicted a goddess. Whoever tried to break the stones received severe injuries or paid with their lives. Then, my family elders took a decision to set up a temple and started worshiping the Goddess Yellamma and also constructed a small temple,” said the Yellamma Temple Trust Board Chairman, Prabhakar Goud.

The Yellamma Temple is not only famous in this locality, but devotees from across the twin cities- Hyderabad and Secunderabad and various places in the Telangana region come to the temple to offer prayers. Come Sunday and Tuesday, devotees throng the temple to have darshan of the goddess,” Prabhakar Goud said. S Mahesh, local resident said that the demand for residential sector would increase in the near future in this area as the civic authorities have given a green signal to start high rise constructions after the airport shifted to Shamshabad from Begumpet.

“When the Begumpet airport was in operation, hundreds of flights took off and landed from the area when the runway stretched to Balkampet,” he said. Balkampet is also famous for construction materials like bricks, cement, iron and sand. “As Balkampet is the epicenter for many localities in Hyderabad, we chose this place and started wholesale business in construction materials. Many people come to this place and purchase construction material as they are available at affordable prices,” said Yadgiri, brick seller. Ameerpet, S R Nagar, Balanagar, Sanathnagar, Fathenagar are the neighbouring areas of Balkampet.