City lakes neglected, residents live in fear

No action despite repeated flooding, breach in tanks

Despite repeated flooding and breaching of many tanks in and around the city, about 30 lakes under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits are lying neglected and are likely to pose grave threat to people in the neighbourhood in case of an unexpected downpour.

The civic body, immediately after the flash floods during October last year, decided to restore about 50 lakes which were either severely damaged or on the verge of breaching. However, the corporation authorities, despite another flash flood during July, have not learnt any lesson. A preliminary survey by the corporation revealed that about 30 lakes have been posing grave threat at present as the officials did not even complete the bund strengthening process even after 10 months.

Immediately after a major devastation during October last year, the state government already spent `10 crore for temporary restoration of tanks and assured it would sanction another `40 crore to take up repairs on a permanent basis. These restoration and repair works would be taken up after evacuating residents in the low-lying areas and in the long run all 185 lakes which have already reached their full tank levels (FTL) will be repaired and restored with an estimated cost of `10 crore, according to the officials.

Despite the government sanctioning `50 crore for restoration of lakes, authorities said the corporation only spent `9.5 crore till date. An official maintained that the corporation was yet to fix boundaries of about 30 lakes which were already in their full tank capacity as the water inflow did not stop for the past 10 months as sewer water from adjacent colonies have been continuously flowing into these water bodies. Officials said the restoration activities including strengthening and fencing could be completed only after fixing the FTL levels of the lakes. As a result, Palle Cheruvu, Fox Sagar lake, Bandlaguda Cheruvu, Jillelguda

Cheruvu among others have been posing grave threat to the residents nearby.

A GHMC official said till date, FTL boundary maps of 100 tanks had been preliminary notified and the final notification of 50 tanks had been completed and updated maps would be uploaded and put in public domain.

He said the corporation had already fixed the boundaries of about 100 lakes out of total 185 and the final notification would be issued for claims and objections. He informed that the civic body had already sanctioned `94.17 crore to develop 63 lakes.

He said fencing, illumination, walking tracks and landscapes would be developed very soon.