Hyderabad: SNDP phase 1 work nowhere near completion, reveals RTI

Hyderabad: The status of ongoing work under the Telangana government’s Strategic Nala Development Program (SNDP) in GHMC limits and other nearby areas is nowhere near completion even past the previously stated deadline of July.

A Right to Information (RTI) query filed by city-based activist Robin Zaccheus revealed that almost all of the works undertaken by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) are currently still in progress.

SNDP was formed after October 2020, when the city witnessed heavy flooding after cloud bursts and unusually strong rainfall that led to the loss of lives and damage to infrastructure. The GHMC stated throughout the monsoon season that the SNDP works would be completed by the end of June 2022.

The RTI response says that a total of Rs 17.76 crore has been spent on the works ongoing in the GHMC area against the estimated Rs 122.33 crore. The ten works in the LB Nagar zone are all under progress barring the Nala from Mansoorabad Chinna Cheruvu to Bandlaguda Cheruvu, in which work is yet to begin.

SNDP works in other Urban Local Bodies (ULB) like Meerpet, Badangpet and Jalpally are also incomplete. Almost all of the works have incurred no expenses, which points towards little to no progress.

In Meerpet, Rs 0.95 crores have been spent on the construction of a box drain from Suma Paradise to Sita Meadows and Rs 2.01 crores have been spent on another box drain from Greenrich Avenue to Pedda Cheruvu against the estimated Rs 10 crores and Rs 8.72 crores respectively.

Previously, the superintending engineer (SE) of the Secunderabad zone had said in an RTI reply that the works ongoing in Nagamaiah Kunta Nala from Padma Colony to Shivanand Nagar and the construction of stormwater drain from Mohini Cheruvu to Musi River in Amberpet circle are “expected to be completed by December 2023.”