HYDERABAD: With many of the Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP) Phase-I works in various stages of completion, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has set in motion plans to take up Phase-II works to cover the remaining colonies and areas that are at risk of inundation whenever it rains heavily.
The SNDP Phase-II proposes to cover 415 nala works, with a length of 450 km in the limits of the GHMC and neighbouring ULBs, at an estimated cost of Rs 5,135.22 crore. Of this, 148 nalas of a total length of 175 km are in GHMC limits and the civic body proposes to spend Rs 2,141.22 crore on them. The remaining 267 nalas covering a distance of 275 km and costing Rs 2,994 crore are in ULBs surrounding the city.
The Phase-II proposals have been submitted to the State government for administrative sanction for an amount of Rs 2,141.22 crore and Rs 2,993.93 crore, for GHMC and ULBs within ORR, respectively.
The 267 ORR works have been divided into four packages — Package-1 has 68 works costing Rs 1,336 crore, Package-2 has 39 works, costing Rs 639 crore, Package-3 has 34 works costing Rs 338 crore and Package-4 will include 126 works costing Rs 653 crore.
GHMC officials said Hyderabad experienced unprecedented rainfall in October 2020. The sudden and heavy downpours resulted in flash floods causing intensive flooding of many low-lying areas and affecting over 40,000 families. This was mainly due to deficiencies in the stormwater drainage system, including encroachments blocking the natural flow of water. They said that it was clear that a thorough revamp of the SWD system was needed considering the exponential expansion of the city.
Long-term solutions
To prevent and mitigate the consequences of flooding in future and minimise the damages in Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration (HUA), the State government has established the SNDP, a dedicated project wing in Hyderabad to plan, develop and maintain comprehensive stormwater drainage/nala system in Hyderabad with the overall objective of mitigating the adversities on account of heavy rains, urban floods in future.
SNDP had carried out a detailed study of the existing nala, stormwater drain system and identified critical narrow points, encroachments on nalas, trunk mains, feeder nalas and all other issues on a mission mode.