HYDERABAD: With the state government prioritising the Musi Riverfront Beautification Project, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is set to conduct a drone survey along the Musi River stretch. The aim is to demarcate and identify encroachments, households, flooding areas, and other features within the buffer and maximum flood levels to avoid frequent flooding and to rejuvenate Musi.
Musi river, once the lifeline of Hyderabad city, is in a deteriorating state, with increasing encroachments shrinking its bed across the city.
The GHMC is going to utilise the services of a private agency through bids for carrying out the drone survey. The selected agency after completing the agreement formality, will take on a survey lasting 15 days, for which the civic body has earmarked `49.55 lakh.
Sources said that the bidder should fly its drone and capture data to conduct a detailed study and initiate necessary measures. Study may extend to Musi river catchment and watershed. It will focus on the number and extent of structures within the buffer zone of Musi River, the number of affected households, and the structures falling within the maximum flood level of River Musi.
Early this month Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy directed the officials to develop the Musi riverfront on a 55 km stretch in Hyderabad limits in the first phase. He wanted the entire stretch of the Musi riverbed as an economic growth centre and job creation hub.
Last week, the chief minister held detailed discussions with experts in London who helped revive the Thames River as part of the state government’s efforts to revive the River Musi.
The Musi beautification project in Hyderabad which has been delayed for nearly two decades is set to be revived after the Congress government came up with a plan for the same. In the first phase, the government proposed to develop the 55-km-stretch of the Musi River in Hyderabad on the lines of Sabarmati Riverfront Project of Gujarat.
Environmentalists have been voicing concerns over River Musi, citing encroachment as the primary cause. A few thousand illegal encroachments have come up along the course of the river at different places like Puranapul, Chaderghat, Nagole, Moosarambagh and others. The previous BRS government had planned to relocate the squatters by providing them the 2BHK houses.