HYDERABAD: There is going to be a major relief for about 10,000 families facing flooding in Tolichowki, Nadeem Colony, Nizam Colony, and a few other residential areas during the rainy season as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to construct a RCC box drain from Balkapur Nala to Rethibowli Junction from inside Mehdipatnam Garrison through the Military land.
The civic body would lay the 745-metre box drain of size 3.0 metres x 1.5 metres from Balkapur Nala Military premises to Rethibowli Junction from inside Mehdipatnam Garrison at an estimated cost of Rs 9.75 crore.
Also at the same time to deal with sewage flow into the nala, GHMC will take up the construction of Interception and Diversion (I&D) structure by laying of 1000 mm dia RCC sewer pipeline from Balkapur Nala along the Military area to Ekminar Madina Masjid at an estimated cost of Rs 4.70 crore. These two proposals have been tabled before the GHMC Standing Committee meeting to be held tomorrow. After approval by the committee, the same will be placed before the GHMC Council before being forwarded to the State government for administrative sanction.
The construction of these two works will make way for the removal of a check dam in the military areas constructed across Balkapur Nala at Tolichowki. Because of the check dam, localities like Tolichowki, Nadeem colony and others have been facing the brunt of floods for years as they are getting inundated during rain.
In the Assembly session held in March this year, MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao threatened to cut power and drinking water supply to defence areas. KTR claimed that local military authority was ‘unnecessarily’ causing hardship to citizens by closing roads and constructing the check dam.
He alleged that several areas were inundated during the 2020 floods due to check dam on Balkapur Nala constructed by the military authority. “If they don’t understand, we have to take strong steps. If needed, we will cut power and water supplies to them and see whether they will climb down from their stand,” he said.
Later, Rama Rao and Army officials, including General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Dakshin Bharat Area, Lt Gen A Arun held discussions on the issue, where the latter assured that LMA would cooperate with the government.
Apart from a series of meetings held previously, this month a meeting of the senior officials from the State government and those from the military was held in the first week of this month. Later, a joint inspection of senior officials was done in the second week of this month.
Sources said that the Balkapur Nala is passing from inside Mehdipatnam Garrison and is getting stagnated and overflowing to neighbouring upstream colonies and also in certain areas of military premises due to the check dam.
During the joint meeting by GHMC Commissioner and Telangana and Andhra Sub-Area Military (TASA) officials and Defence Estate Officer, it has been decided to propose diversion of stormwater drain by constructing underground RCC box drain from Balkapur Nala to Rethibowli Junction to discharge the same into Musi River.
Alignment of the proposed drain was finalised and approved, duly submitting application in the LMS portal for obtaining approval from the Ministry of Defence for construction of RCC box drain on November 10.
Sewer pipeline
The GHMC has also decided to take up I & D structure RCC sewer pipeline from Balkapur Nala along the military area to Ekminar Madina Masjid.Officials said that Balkapur Nala which is meant to carry stormwater during the monsoon period and is also carrying sewage from the adjacent houses during the non-monsoon period.In order to prevent flooding in Nadeem colony and adjacent areas and also to avoid nuisance of sewage flowing in open Nala in the Military area, an I & D structure is proposed to be constructed at a cost about Rs 4.70 crore.