Hyderabad: Hyderabad is poised to become a megacity by the year 2020, according to a projection made by the United Nations.
The city’s population is estimated to increase to 1.277 crore by 2030, breaking into the 30 most populous cities in the world by 2030.
However, concerns exist over the city’s infrastructural requirements to support the projected population growth.
In its 2014 revision of its report ‘World Urbanisation Prospects’, the United Nations’ department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that Hyderabad’s population would reach 89.44 lakh by 2015.
Interestingly, the growth rate of population in the city is projected to fall with every decade. The UN said Hyderabad’s growth rate was about 3.31 per cent between 2010-15 but would fall to 2.05 per cent by 2025-30.
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Hyderabad is one of the four cities in India that will become megacities over the next decade, taking the country’s total count to seven. Delhi is already the second most populous megacity in the world after Tokyo. China has six megacities and will add another by 2030.
Prof. Srinivas Chary, director, Centre for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance, and Infrastructure Development, Administrative Staff College of India, said, “At present, we don’t have the infrastructure to support this kind of growth.”
“But, it can be delivered. We need radical changes in the way we conduct ourselves and find different methods of finance. Institutions like the GHMC or the HMDA are not geared to provide this change,” he said
