State witnesses rapid pace of urbanisation

Hyderabad: The Telangana State is the frontrunner among the fastest urbanizing States in India. The Pattana Pragati programme, which has been launched in an innovative way under the leadership of State Urban Development and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao, drew big applause from the entire country by receiving national awards every year. Today, Telangana is recognized as the fast growing urbanised State with well-developed cities and towns on par with international standards.

The government has released Rs.4304 crore to 142 municipal bodies along with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) under Pattana Pragati. Out of these funds, Rs.3936 crores i.e. about 92 percent of the funds, have already been utilized by the municipal bodies. The government has sanctioned Rs.2276 crore to GHMC and Rs.2028 crore to the remaining 141 municipalities. The government was releasing funds every month under Pattana Pragati to strengthen the municipal bodies financially viable and achieve the goals set by the government.

Other than GHMC, 141 municipal bodies were collecting 4,356 tonnes of garbage every day. 2165 new sanitation vehicles have been procured to collect the garbage from the houses 100 per cent. Earlier, only 2675 tonnes of garbage was collected and transported by 2548 sanitation vehicles per day. At present, the number of sanitary garbage collection vehicles has increased to 4713 which has significantly improved the sanitation situation. A total of 1233 acres of dump yards have been set up in 141 municipalities to process the collected garbage. 206 dry source collection centers have been set up to separate the garbage into wet and dry. 229 compost beds have been established to convert the garbage into organic manure. For environmental protection, the government sanctioned 139 Faecal Waste Treatment plants with a capacity of 2035 kilo liters per day at a cost of Rs.428 crores in all municipalities, except GHMC.

Tree parks are also being developed under " Prakriti Vanalu '' (urban natural forests) in 3468 wards in 141 municipalities. Under this programme, 34.59 lakh saplings have been planted from 2021 till the date.

A large-scale plantation has been undertaken under Harita Haram for Telangana. The target is to plant 2.14 crore saplings in 141 municipalities in 2023-24. Accordingly, 2.36 crore plants are being raised in 1012 nurseries.

Development under Harita Nidhi (Green Fund)

The government has received Rs 128.97 lakh from trade license holders and Rs 14.28 lakh from employees and public representatives as contribution. In all, Rs 1,43,25,000 was deposited. The State government has sanctioned 453 Vaikuntadhamams in 141 Municipal bodies. While works in 297 Vaikuntadhamams already completed. works are in progress in other 149 places. With the slew of development programs, including the environment protection taken up by the government, all the municipal bodies in the State stood as a role model for the country.