Hyderabad: HYDRA to unleash crackdown on illegal constructions in city

Hyderabad: The newly formed Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection (HYDRA) will soon establish special police stations to deal with the encroachment cases in Greater Hyderabad, following the complaints pouring at HYDRA related to encroachments. The department will act sternly against land grabbers, builders violating norms including encroachment on lake, nalas and government lands.

HYDRA Commissioner AV Ranganath on Monday said that hundreds of complaints are being received regarding the encroachments across the city. HYDRA has been allocated a budget of Rs 200 crore for resources, and the department will be taking strict action against encroachments in its range of 2,500 sq km.

The Commissioner said that according to the NRSC report, many ponds/lakes have disappeared in 44 years. He said that most of the ponds have been encroached by 60 per cent and some by 80 per cent. He said that in as many as 56 lakes taken for the study, the lakes which were spread in 40.35 sq km earlier, are presently at 16.9 sq km with 24.26 sq km (60%) have been encroached.

Ranganath said that encroachments within the ponds are being identified. If these are not prevented, the future of Hyderabad will become questionable. It was explained that soon the government will recruit a large number of personnel for HYDRA. “As of now, the asset protection team is working in coordination with the town planning and other departments. So far, HYDRA has begun working on 20 lakes,” he said.

The Commissioner said, “HYDRA will work in three phases. In the first phase, the invasions will be prevented, while in the second phase, there will be actions and denial of permission on the buildings that have been encroached upon. And in the third phase, the silt of the ponds will be removed, and the rainwater will be diverted and revived.” He said that there are more than 400 ponds under the GHMC limits. Ranganath slammed the encroachers for constructing illegal homes inside the full tank level of water bodies and warned not to buy plots in pond FTL, buffer zone. He said that the government is promoting real estate on a large scale, but that it has not given permission to construct residential buildings around water bodies or by encroaching depleted lakes. “The constructions can be done at allotted spaces and not in designated government land or public spaces,” said Ranganath.

Ranganath said, “We have a list of encroachers and those who are disposing of waste in the dried lakes. The constructions have been done without obtaining no objection certificates (NOC). The encroachment is happening at a large scale, and we are targeting those responsible for enabling it.