City to be shopper’s paradise: CM

hyderabad: the shopping festival on international standards will be a regular phenomenon in hyderabad this year onwards, chief minister n chandrababu naidu said while inaugurating the month-long shopping festival 'the great mall of hyderabad' here on saturday. the city has many advantages compared to other cities in the country as it has already become well known for its state-of-the-art facilities, be it information technology or health, the chief minister said.the recent survey by the country and town planning department of the union government stating that the real estate prices are on the rise in hyderabad compared to other cities goes to prove the importance of this historic city, naidu said. the chief minister, seeking cooperation from the public, said everybody should come forward to develop the city to compete with other international cities. many expressed doubts when we promoted information technology in a big way. people wondered if the state needed that push.today, they are seeing the results, he said. speaking about the shopping festival, he said efforts were on to make it popular on the lines of dubai and singapore festivals. earlier,tourism minister e peddi reddy said the great mall was a first-of-a-kind experiment in the country. the government, in association with ogilvy, a private pr consultancy, could make it possible where traders from several states and countries had expressed their desire to participate. union minister of state for urban development bandaru dattatreya congratulated the state government and lauded the initiatives being taken by the chief minister. minister for information and culture n sivaprasad, home minister t devender goud, r&b minister k vijayarama rao, labour minister c krishna yadav,transport minister b v mohan reddy, mla k laxman, gautam mukherjee and ranjan kapoor of ogilvy and iran consular general ali gomi and others were present.