Durgam Cheruvu aka Secret Lake, Hyderabad

Imagine you are sitting under a tree on top of a hill with a cool breeze blowing across your face and in front of you is a wide expanse of blue water surrounded by granite hillocks. And all this, right in the middle of the City of Hyderabad. Hyderabad sightseeing is always fun, not just because of the wonderful locals, and the beautiful locations but also because of the efforts that the AP Tourism Department has taken to develop most tourist places.

Durgam Cheruvu literally means Secret Lake in English. During earlier times, this lake used to supply water to the Golconda Fort. It lies just beside the posh Jubilee Hills area. The lake is called Durgam Cheruvu because there was no road leading to it for years and it was completely enclosed from all sides, making it difficult to know that there was a lake beyond the rocks. This was why very few people used to visit this place.
Today, the lake has been beautifully developed and landscaped with many different plants adding to the beauty of the garden on its banks. Usually this place has a large number of young lovers looking around for nooks and crannies. But on weekends, there are usually more families who come to enjoy the beauty of this lake. On top of the lake there is an amphitheatre and sometimes there are rock fests that are held in these beautiful, picturesque surrounds as shown in the photographs above.
This secret lake is surrounded by beautiful rocks which are very old and interest many geologists. On one hand of the Durgam Cheruvu, you can see many buildings of IT companies being built.
Durgam Cheruvu lake in Hyderabad also provides the facilities of boating on its waters. You can take a pedal boat and move around the waters for 1 hour by paying up only 120 bucks – provided you can brave the Hyderabadi sun. There are other rides also available for nominal prices in mechanized boats and also in putty boats.
The Secret Lake is open from 9:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening. There is a cafeteria and refreshment center on the top of the lake. Some more infrastructure is also getting built by the government these days.

How to reach there?
Durgam Cheruvu is near the Babasaheb Ambedkar college. The best way to reach this place is to look for a crossing near to the Madhapur police station on the main road that goes to Madhapur from Jubilee Hills. From the cross roads near the Madhapur railway station, you need to take a left turn if you are travelling in the direction from Jubilee Hills to Madhapur and keep moving. Ask around a bit and soon enough you will come to the ticket window near the lake.

Remember that it might be closed due to heavy rains in the monsoon too. You can call and arrange your trip to Durgam Cheruvu.

Phone Numbers of this place are 91-40-23110523 and 040- 55510372.