Fund crunch may hit nala widening by GHMC

Hyderabad: Facing severe financial crisis, the nala widening in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits will be delayed. The civic body officials claimed the corporation would seek help from the State government to pay compensation for the slum dwellers who have been residing adjacent to nalas and will lose shelter during widening.

Besides manual survey, the corporation officials had used Drone cameras for aerial survey and video-documenting the areas by utilising the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The Geographical Information System (GIS) wing of the GHMC was actively involved in the exercise. The officials identified as many as 12,182 unauthorised constructions over 173 major nalas which were spread over 390 km. Of them, nala widening will affect about 7,000 structures for which the GHMC should spent whopping amounts in the form of compensation for the slum dwellers to shift them to other areas.

A senior GHMC official told The Hans India the decision of nala widening has been pending with the government. He said that the corporation is planning to shift the slum dwellers to community halls and other places if they receive approval from the government. He said citing severe financial crisis the GHMC has asked the government to allocate double bedroom houses for dwellers.

When queried about the demolition drive, the official said that it has been going in snail's pace due to political interference from the local political leaders.

He also said a series of meetings were held with the local leaders and they have proposed to increase the depth of the nalas so that demolition of unauthorised structures and nala widening can be minimised. However, he said that the corporation has been considering all options and final decision would be taken in a couple of days.