A rare newsclip from Cass City Chronicle dated November 15th 1946, reveals that Nizam had huge development plans for Hyderabad state. Here is the full text of the news article and an image of the same:
World’s Wealthiest Man Has Big Plans Engineer Tells of Projects Under Way in India.
HYDERABAD, INDIA. — Michigan Mirror Nov,15,1946
Initial steps have been taken for a $125,000,000 industrial development in this princely state, which encompasses 16,000,000 persons under an absolute monarch who, is also the world’s richest man
From this fabulous city of glittering minarets will be directed the construction of a vast project as modern in conception as the Tennessee Valley project in America.
The project will start with an entirely new industrial town costing $5,000,000.
The Godavari river valley development will require five to seven years to complete, says CoL E. W.Slaughter, British engineer, who drafted the plan with experts of the Nizam’s government.
Slaughter estimated that approximately half the $125,000,000 will go toward capital works, including, power plants,, railways and the new industrial city. This expense would be borne by the Nizam’s government.
Of the remainder, the government expects to invest half the amount in industries with private investorsputting up the balance.
Colonel Slaughter estimated that at its peak the Godavari development will employ another half million persons in industry, and bring under more intensive cultivation nearly 2,000,000 acres of land.
A 40,000-kilowatt thermal power plant to supply electricity in the model city area is expected to arrive shortly.
The first of the three dams planned for the Godavari should provide 150,000 kilowatts, Slaughter said. Two other dams will be chiefly for irrigating a 2,000,000-acre area.
New steelworks are expected to produce 500,000 tons of high grade steel annually at the end of seven years. Smelting will be done electrically.
The plan also calls for 650 miles of new railway, a paper pulp mill, textile mills for cotton and rayon, and factories for heavy engineering equipment, plastics, furniture—and eventually electric gadgets.