Hyderabad is poised to acquire a new avatar in the next three decades with mega plans for a spread of its urban sprawl and consequent demographic and economic boom. Bureaucrats were quietly drawing up these blueprints to transform Greater Hyderabad into Metropolitan Hyderabad even as the Centre was grappling with the separate Telangana issue since Dec 2009.
The AP government, knowing fully well that bifurcation was on the cards, had notified the Metropolitan Development Plan-2031 for Hyderabad in Jan last. Thereafter, in Nov last, the Draft Comprehensive Long-Term Transport Plan for Hyderabad Metropolitan Area-2041 and the Draft Intelligent Transportation System Master Plan-2031 were notified.
These three grandiose plans, as well as the mega plan to develop an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) around Hyderabad in two phases up to 2038, not only require massive investment but also a Herculean effort by the administration and civic infrastructure providers to implement them in a time-bound manner. The public-private partnership mode is envisaged to fund or operationalise some of the projects in these plans.
Despite substantive objections raised by stakeholders, including the MIM, and ignoring their demand not to finalise the MDP-2031 till the bifurcation issue was sorted out, the State government had hastily issued GO Ms. 33 approving the plan along with the Land Use Zoning and Development Promotion Regulations for the Hyderabad Metropolitan Region (HMR).
Now, the HMDA has in place a comprehensive Master Plan for a 7,228 sq km area, comprising 55 mandals. The MDP is notified up to 2031, by which time the population of the HMDA area is expected to reach 184 lakh with a workforce of 65 lakh.
The 13 urban nodes identified in the MDP include Shadnagar, Shahbad, Chevella, Sangareddy, Tupran, Bibinagar, Bhongir, Choutuppal and Ibrahimpatnam. The 35 urban centres, which are interdependent on urban contiguous pockets and urban nodes, include Alur, Daulatabad, Narsapur, Shivampet, Wargal, Turkapalle, Bommalaramaram, Pochampally, Manchal, Yacharam, Kandukur etc. The rural settlements are villages which would be provided with basic social amenities and physical infrastructure.
A 90 m wide Regional Ring Road (RRR), with a length of 290 km, is planned by strengthening the roads and covering missing links. The RRR would connect Shadnagar, Ibrahimpatnam, Bibinagar, Wargal, Tupran, Shahbad, etc. Rail passenger terminals are planned at Manoharabad and Edulanagulapalli, a freight terminal at Ravulapalli, and passenger-cum-freight terminals at Timmapur and Bhongir. Logistic hubs are planned at a dozen places, including Edulabad, Munirabad, Koheda, Aushapur, Thimmapur and Rudraram.
Water bodies, forests, natural heritage zone, bioconservation use zone and areas covered by the catchment areas of the Himayatsagar and Osmansagar lakes, as per GO Ms. No. 111, and other ecologically sensitive areas, are proposed to be preserved. The HMDA, under the directions of the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority-Hyderabad (UMTA-H), carried out a Comprehensive Transportation Study (CTS)-2041 to prepare a Comprehensive Long Term Transport Plan for HMA with the support of the GHMC, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL), Traffic Police and APSRTC.
The consultants, LEA Associates South Asia Pvt Ltd, submitted a draft final report on the Comprehensive Long Term Transportation Plan for 2041. The report projected that the estimated population and employment of HMA would rise to 190 lakh and 93 lakh respectively, compared to 96 lakh and 37 lakh respectively as per the 2011 Census. Based on the travel demand forecasts, the study recommended a transportation plan for 2041 consisting of transit and highway networks.
The HMDA approved the draft Comprehensive Long-Term Transportation Plan and invited suggestions and objections from the public in November 2013. Once this plan is notified under the HMDA Act, RFPs will be invited. But till the DPRs are prepared for all these projects envisaged under the Plan, it will not be possible to quantify the quantum of investments that will be required for implementation of public transport network.
The HMDA has taken the initiative to introduce Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). An MoU was signed with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for preparation of the Master Plan and for supporting the implementation of the project, which is the first of its kind in India.
In September 2013, the Union government approved an ITIR for Hyderabad. The total investment in the ITIR will be a massive `2.19 lakh crore. For the ITIR, the government envisages upgradation of three radial roads and extension of the Metro Rail from Falaknuma to the Shamshabad International Airport at a total cost of `3,275 crore.
It is clear that the Metropolitan Development Plan-2031, the Comprehensive Long-Term Transportation Plan-2041, ITS Master Plan-2031 for Hyderabad Metropolitan Area would require massive funding. The MDP and Long-Term Transportation Plan, especially, would need tens of thousands of crores every year for the next 27 years to implement the ambitious civic and related infrastructure. Where will these funds come from?
With the state’s bifurcation and the formation of a Telangana state effective from Monday, raising the resources for these grandiose plans would be a big issue. Under the AP Reorganisation Act, Hyderabad, comprising the GHMC area, would be the common capital of Telangana and the residuary state of AP for a period of 10 years. Law and order in the state capital would remain under the common governor of the two states, even as the two governments, their legislatures and the common HC function from here.
Telangana would be in no position to raise the enormous resources required to fund these plans. The residuary state of AP can hardly be expected to contribute finances for civic infrastructure in a city which it would have to leave in a decade. The Union government too does not have enormous funds. The PPP model would not work for most of the infrastructure projects to be taken up under these plans. Hyderabad has witnessed unprecedented growth since it became the state capital of Andhra Pradesh in November 1956. This growth has been propelled by the spread of industrial and economic activities to the peripheral areas of Hyderabad, especially since 1971 when the concept of the Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration surfaced.
With geographical spread, there has been an increase in the population of the Hyderabad urban agglomeration. Once again, Hyderabad’s urban sprawl is set to intrude into the hitherto rural hinterland that is dotted with towns. The MDP is likely to give a boost and increase in population with another spell of migration. Most of the potential migrants are not expected from the Telangana hinterland but from Seemandhra. This will impact Hyderabad irretrievably.
(The author is an MIM MLC)