Musi River

After negligence of more than half centenary, the K Chandrasekhar Rao government seems to be moving forward with the conservation and beautification works of River Musi, which is considered as `Hyderabad’s lifeline’. The prosperity of the city multiplied and helped to emerge as one of the beautiful city in the world only due to this river. However, as successive governments ignoring its conservation and allowing indiscriminate encroachment it turned to be a most polluted river in the country.

Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao announced that the State government is actively considering setting up a special authority for this purpose. The proposed special body would ensure proper coordination among different agencies like the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), besides expediting the works.

The minister disclosed these details by replying to a question in the Legislative Council. A detailed project report was already prepared by HMDA at an estimated cost of Rs 2,966 crore. The government want it to be a self-sufficient project without any additional burden on the State government.

The government is planning to take it up under Public Private Partnership mode and complete in two to three years. The government was also planning to seek funds from the Centre under the National River Conservation Plan. As per the preliminary estimations, the government is hopeful to generate Rs 1,700 crore as returns through real estate development. Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Rammohan and a team of officials would soon visit Sabarmati to study beautification works taken up in Gujarat.

The river has emerged as the fourth most polluted one in the country as nearly 93 per cent of sewerage generated in the city flowed into the river due to gravity. About 1,400 million litres a day (MLD) sewage flowed into the river. The existing sewerage treatment plants (STPs) could handle only 670.