HYDERABAD: Hyderabad has officially stepped into the league of megalopolis with the expanwsion of the territorial jurisdiction of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). With the merger of seven municipal corporations and 20 municipalities, the state government has given final approval for the reorganisation of GHMC into 12 zones and 60 circles.
The erstwhile GHMC, which was spread across 650 square kilometres with six zones, 30 circles and 150 wards, has now expanded to 300 wards covering nearly 2,000 square kilometres. The reorganisation has positioned GHMC as India’s largest municipal corporation in terms of both area and population, giving Hyderabad renewed national and international recognition as a major metropolitan centre.
GHMC officials said the state government’s move to bring multiple urban local bodies under a single municipal authority is being seen as a landmark step to address the challenges of rapid urbanisation through integrated governance and long-term planning. Following the merger of the urban local bodies, the existing administrative structure witnessed a substantial increase in workload.
It has been stated that the population of GHMC now exceeds 1.34 crore, necessitating further decentralisation to ensure uniform administration, improved service delivery and greater convenience to the public. Along with the existing zones — Serilingampally, Kukatpally, Secunderabad, Khairatabad, Charminar and LB Nagar — six new zones have been created: Malkajgiri, Uppal, Shamshabad, Rajendranagar, Golconda and Quthbullapur.
Officials noted that the expanded GHMC framework provides the scale and capacity required to manage growth in a more systematic and sustainable manner. Among the zones, Quthbullapur has the highest number of circles at seven, followed by Rajendranagar and Uppal with six each. LB Nagar, Shamshabad and Kukatpally zones have the least number of circles, with four each.