NGT sets up committee to clean Hyderabad's Musi river

A committee has been set up by National Green Tribunal (NGT) to clean Hyderabad's Musi river after a petition was filed by Mohammad Nayeem Pasha. The NGT expressed dissatisfaction over the measures taken up by the government to clean the Musi river.

The committee will be headed by retired judge justice Vilas Afzal Purkar. Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Board, Hyderabad district collector have been appointed as the committee members.

The NGT directed the committee to hold a review on Musi cleaning within a month and submit its first report within four months. The Tribunal further instructed the committee to ensure the cleaning of the Musi river in a year. Hearing the plea, the NGT said that they have found that the estimated cost of Musi cleaning works was too high. "The cost is 20 times higher than the normal," the court remarked.

The Telangana government allocated Rs 10,000 crore to develop the Hyderabad city and the funds will also be used to carry out purification of Musi River through the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation (MRDC).

In December last year, the National Green Tribunal directed the Telangana government to stop contamination of the river with the city's sewerage. The tribunal set up March 31, 2021 as a deadline to complete cleaning of Musi including setting up two Sewerage Treatment Plants (STP) and commissioning all the drains to STPs.