Town planners from across India have integrated five existing master plans for the Hyderabad city and developed a comprehensive revised master plan for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Region (HMR). The new master plan requires providing for a seamless connectivity by simplification and standardisation of zoning regulations, using the state-of-the-art technology and incorporating the global best practices with inclusive planning and provision for best in class social amenities to transform Hyderabad into a world class city meeting the future requirements..... The revised master plan was deliberated at a recently organised one day workshop on “Integrated Master Plan for Hyderabad Metropolitan Region”. The plan involved integrating the present day requirements, incorporating the need for the development of Transit Oriented Growth Corridors and the development of the region around ORR, and beyond essential, to transform Hyderabad into a global smart city. K Anand Babu, DTCP, Telangana State and Chairman ITPI-TRC Hyderabad, said, “Telangana is on a fast pace of growth and development. It is a matter of great pride that today the state is ranked as among the best states for doing business due to the proactive policies and quick decision-making. With rapid growth, it is essential to plan for the future and streamline and integrate the existing master plans for Hyderabad. There is a need to remove the shortcomings of the existing plans and demark areas for specific purposes and plan the future infrastructure to support the growth and development of the city and transform it into a global smart city as desired.” He added that the workshop was being organised in association with HMDA to deliberate on the issues and challenges in preparing the integrated comprehensive master plan for the city. In addition, T Chiranjeevulu, IAS, Commissioner, HMDA, said, “The Hyderabad metropolitan region has five different plans in different formats with different zoning regions. To integrate the plans, we need to adopt a three pronged strategy. The first phase would be to convert the existing master plans in the same format and achieve seamless connectivity. It requires achieving uniform zoning regulations and common horizon year for a proper integration of different land use corridors and the development of infrastructure while preserving the existing environment and heritage. The exercise required the preparation of guiding principles, incorporation of global best practices and inputs from all stakeholders to evolve a shared vision while preparing a concept plan for 2041 with a projection of population growth to 19 million from the present 9.4 million.” He emphasised that the development of integrated and revised masterplan for HMR needs to have a proper assessment of the existing situation by removing the existing anomalies and incorporating the revised integrated and finalized plan for Hyderabad. The workshop, organised by ITPI Telangana regional chapter, aimed at gathering the insights from the experience of the town planners across the country and to discuss, debate and collate the issues and challenges to develop a comprehensive master plan for the city. Dr DS Meshram, President, ITPI, said, “The biggest challenge for cities today is to have a comprehensive master plan for the city capturing the accurate details of different preservation and development zones and detailed specifications for drainage, water and sanitation, roads and transport with traffic flows, electricity, drinking water supply, telecommunication and optical fibre network along with the planning for the future infrastructure required by the city.”  K Purushotham Reddy, Director Planning HMDA and Hon Secretary, Institute of Town Planners India-Telangana Regional Chapter, said “Last two years, since the formation of Telangana state, we have seen a lot of proactive measures taken by the government making the state one of the best managed states in the country. Hyderabad city has a cosmopolitan population of approx. 10 million, which will probably double when the corporate start and enhance the operations in the city. Even the 158 km 8 lane ORR with the established radial road network will house the proposed transit oriented growth corridors, needing to be developed as self-sustained townships.” The workshop raised some pertinent issues and brought to light invaluable experiences of town planners from other metros to be considered while integrating and preparing a comprehensive revised master plan for Hyderabad.