Hyderabad: Pending Uppal nala works pique residents

Uppal: Works of the Uppal nala remain pending for the last five months, despite several complaints lodged by residents with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Three major residential colonies in the area are Chiluka Nagar, Swaroop and Aditya colony. During rains in October last year these areas experienced heavy flooding, following which several houses were completely inundated for several days.

Later, the GHMC under Nala Strategic Development Programme (NSDP) proposed a plan to develop the nala to prevent it from overflowing during rains, after which the amount was sanctioned and the works began, however the works remain incomplete. With the onset of monsoon residents living close to nalas are gripped in fear as the authorities fail to complete work, risking floods.

Manohar Reddy, resident of Swaroop colony said, "The development works which were carried out remain incomplete, while the authorities promised us to complete the works before monsoon. We are very scared and have no clue of how much loss we will have incur this year too."

Another resident, J Santosh told that the GHMC workers broke the existing boundary walls of nala and were supposed to construct a new one but still, they are removing the dumped garbage and only carrying out the nala desilting work. "The open nala might cause water inundation in the area and the municipal officials must complete the works as soon as possible."

According to locals, works started before the municipal elections and should have been completed by now. "When we complained to the authorities we received a reply from the officials saying that the department is busy carrying out vaccination drivers and handling the Covid-19 situation," the locals informed.

Residents fumed that with the weather department already having predicted heavy rains in the coming days, the GHMC should have completed works by now.

The newly elected GHMC Corporator from BN Reddy Nagar ward, Moddu Lachi Reddy said, "No works have been carried out in the area, even after observing the heavy rains followed by floods in the previous year. All the works are at the starting stage, even though a few proposals and tenders were released but not yet implemented. If the same heavy rains continue this year the damage would be more than the previous year."

He also urged the GHMC authorities to complete all the development works before the area observes heavy damage during the monsoon.