The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Greater Hyderabad to bring in drastic changes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 01, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Greater Hyderabad to bring in drastic changes

Staff Reporter

Better planning and focussed development envisaged

EXPANSION MODE: An aerial view of the city which is expected to increase manifold in area with formation of Greater Hyderabad Corporation. - Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

Hyderabad: The contours of Hyderabad are in for a drastic change. With the High Court quashing the petitions challenging formation of Greater Hyderabad, the State capital is going to witness substantial increase both in terms of its population and area. The merger of 12 surrounding municipalities and 8 gram panchyats will result in the urban agglomeration area increasing from 172 sq. km to 725 sq. km.

The municipalities proposed to be included are L.B. Nagar, Gaddiannaram, Uppal Kalan, Kapra, Alwal, Qutubullapur, Malkajgiri, Kukatpally, Serlingampally, Rajendranagar, Patancheru and Ramachandrapuram. The Gram Panchyats are: Shamshabad, Mamidipalli, Satamarai, Jalapally, Mankhal, Tukkuguda, Sardarnagar and Ravarala.

`Ill-advised'

City Mayor T. Krishna Reddy accepted the court verdict, but said the concept was administratively ill advised. It would cause more harm than good to the people with the taxes registering ten-fold increase. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owasi too feels the move is a disaster administratively. "It will destroy the civic apparatus," he said.

The constitution of Greater Hyderabad is intended to ensure better planning and focussed development of the mega city, make it internationally competitive with world-class infrastructure and services. The population has registered an increase of about 216 per cent in the last three decades - jumping from 18 lakhs in 1971 to about 57 lakhs in 2001. The population of Hyderabad urban agglomeration is expected to touch 136 lakhs by 2021with the overall average density of about 200 persons per hectare. Greater Hyderabad is considered necessary to facilitate improved civic services and relieve the stress on existing infrastructure.

Political motives

However, the elected body in the MCH feels the Greater Hyderabad concept smacks of political motives and formulated without any action plan. In a resolution adopted at the general body meeting in August 2005, majority of the members opposed the proposal to merge the surrounding municipalities and gram panchyats. Several corporators are apprehensive that in the event of creation of Telangana State, the Government might transform Greater Hyderabad into a Union Territory, harming the interests of people of Telangana. It is also feared that the liabilities of the municipalities and gram panchyats proposed to be merged will fall on the exchequer of MCH.

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