HYDERABAD: Telangana govt, which wants to go ahead with its grand plans of Greater City Corporation by merging all the surrounding municipalities in Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority till Outer Ring Road jurisdiction, is looking at two possibilities.
One is to create a Greater City Corporation by merging all the 21 municipalities and seven municipal corporations in GHMC to make a mega civic body and the second option is to divide the metropolitan city into 3-4 major corporations on the lines of Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Plans and possibilities
Chief minister A Revanth Reddy in March had asked the municipal administration department to work out the expansion plans of the city civic body in view of rapid development in Greater Hyderabad.
Officials said complete data on the municipalities and municipal corporations within ORR and GHMC is being collected such as population, households, infrastructure, revenue, parliament and assembly constituencies within ORR, and others. The municipal authorities are also studying how other city corporations are formed and who heads them.
Senior officials said plans on the new mega civic body would be placed before the CM soon. “If one Greater City Corporation is formed, who should head the civic body and what should be the administrative structure like zones is being looked into. Presently, GHMC is being headed by an IAS officer of secretary rank as its commissioner. If the Greater City Corporation is created, it should be headed by special chief secretary cadre or a very senior IAS officer. GHMC was earlier headed by principal secretary cadre officers also,” a CMO official said.
Administrative challenges
If only one corporation is created, it would be covering nearly 1.2 crore to 1.3 crore population, and it will have both advantages and disadvantages administratively, senior officials said.
The other option is the entire city (till ORR) will be divided into three to four corporations by merging some municipalities like western, northern, eastern and central parts of the city and nearby municipalities. For instance, in the western part, municipalities such as Manikonda, Narsingi, Tellapur, Ameenpur and Nizampet Municipal Corporation can become part of the western corporation.
Similarly in the eastern part, Boduppal and Peerzadiguda corporations, Ghatkesar and Pedda Amberpet municipalities can be merged. The authorities are also planning to bring entire assembly constituency in one civic body to avoid any administrative problems for taking up developmental activities. The number of divisions and its population is also being worked out by the officials.
“Revenues are also important while creation of a new city corporations is being done. Southern part of the city, especially Old City, cannot be a separate corporation as the revenues are not sufficient, specially building fees and property taxes, to make it a self-reliant body. It should be made part of one corporation,” a senior official said.
Implementation timeline
Official sources said the new Greater City Corporation or multiple corporations would be created only next year as the present surrounding municipalities’ tenure will come to an end in Feb 2025. The civic bodies have to pass a resolution. Secondly, GHMC present elected body tenure expires in Feb 2026. Officials said the state govt can complete the exercise and amend the Municipal Acts that are required.
