Govt planning to divide GHMC into four corporations, says Komatireddy

Is the government planning to split the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) into four corporations?

If one were to go by the terse announcement of Roads and Buildings minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, the proposal is under active consideration of the Congress government. The laconic statement came from the minister at Assocham’s Urban Infrastructure Summit – 2024 here on Friday.

In his speech as the chief guest at the summit attended by industrialists, realtors, academicians and officials, the minister declared that the splitting of GHMC would be done “after the elections” (possibly the polls to the GHMC). “Population in Greater Hyderabad was reaching almost 1.5 crore. That’s the reason, the State government was planning to divide the GHMC into four corporations. There would be four Mayors after the coming elections”, the minister stated taking everyone by surprise. Venkat Reddy, however, did not elaborate on the point. In fact, it was in March last, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had asked officials to work out plans for the civic body considering its rapid development.

The GHMC was formed through a notification issued on April 16, 2007 by merging 12 municipalities



into the then Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) by the then Andhra Pradesh government. Some 12 years later, the GHMC was divided into six zones and 150 divisions.

Earlier the Minister found fault with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) accusing it of politicizing the Musi Riverfront Development project. In the past, the BRS government had secured a loan of Rs. 1,000 crore from JICA for cleaning the Musi River but now, after losing power, they were opposing the project.

He asserted that despite the opposition, the project would be taken up in the interest of the public. People in Nalgonda and parts of Rangareddy were facing health issues as waste from pharma companies and untreated water was being released into the River Musi.

The project’s DPR was yet to be prepared but the BRS was misleading the people saying the government was going to spend about Rs.1.5 lakh crore, he said, adding that a delegation would visit South Korea shortly to study riverfront development.

The Minister also said the Regional Ring Road project tenders would be floated in November. It is an Rs.28,000 crore project funded by NHAI and the RRR would cover nearly 50 percent of Telangana, he added.