How to unbox the twin cities

Hyderabad is the 24th  largest city in the world. The twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad have its 5.3 million people living in an area of 172 sq km. By 2030, the twin cities will be home, cheek by jowl, to 10.15 millions. That means, in just another 15 years all our urban woes are likely to at least double. More people, more wealth will mean more motor vehicles, more commuting, more congestion, more effluents and more chaos.

The new urban agglomeration under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) sprawls across 923 sq km with a population of 9.23 millions, making it India’s second-largest city by area, after New Delhi. It also dramatically reduces the average density of population to about 776 per sq km. The GHMC starts with Shamshabad in the south and goes up to Gundla Pochampally in the north, from Vanasthalipuram in the east to Patancheruvu in the west. Yet, the twin cities are among the more congested and air polluted habitations in the world, because almost two-thirds of the GHMC population is concentrated within them.

In terms of air pollution Hyderabad is almost at par with Bengaluru and Bangkok. It has a Pollution Index (PI) of 79.98 as opposed to Bengaluru’s 80.56 and Bangkok’s 79.08. The PI is an estimation of the overall pollution in the city. The biggest weight is given to air pollution, then to water pollution/accessibility, the two main pollution factors.

Ditto for the Pollution Exponential Scale (PES) which is arrived at using an exponential scale to show very high numbers for very polluted cities, and very low numbers for unpolluted cities. India’s most polluted city using this composite scale is Kanpur with a score of 182.98, but Hyderabad is not very far behind with a score of 143.36. Compared to it Shenzhen, China’s biggest export centre, has a score of 149.75 and the world’s most built up and among its largest cities, Shanghai, has a score of 155.86. All this establishes that the people of the twin cities are living dangerously without the attendant economic and urban comfort levels. It should hence come as no surprise that Indians have 30 per cent lower lung function compared to Europeans.

Traffic congestion on road networks occurs as use increases, and is characterised by slower speeds, longer trip times and increased vehicular queuing. As demand approaches the capacity of a road (or of the intersections along the road), extreme traffic congestion sets in. When vehicles are slowed or stopped by traffic congestions and jams they spew huge concentrations of a devil’s brew of air pollution. Those who live in any of our big cities experience the “joys” of growth and progress everyday in terms of the time taken to move and in the air we breathe. Interestingly Hyderabad is not among India’s top car owning cities, yet its air quality is among the worst. This is quite a testimony to how congested the twin cities have become.

Clearly, the solution to Hyderabad’s increasing pollution and traffic congestion is to spread out the city more evenly. But this will not be helped by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s recently expressed intentions of building a new secretariat at Secunderabad’s historic Parade and Gymkhana grounds, and to build a high-rise city centre around the excessively polluted Hussain-sagar. By doing this he will heap more misery into the lives of the residents of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. This will be particularly ironic specially when the GHMC has so much open land within it.

Now, if I were advising the chief minister, I would ask him to pull down the ramshackle state secretariat and move it to a more open and prominent part under the GHMC. For instance, relocating it on the eastern side, say on the Hyderabad-Bhongir axis would be a capital idea. Here the new Telangana state can relocate its administrative capital with modern, spacious and spread-out office and residential areas, like Gandhinagar is to Ahmedabad. Or New Raipur is to Raipur. Or Putrajaya is to Kuala Lumpur.

Chandrasekhar Rao broke the tradition by holding Telangana’s first Independence Day under the watchful ramparts of the Golconda Fort, such a central part of Telangana’s history. Likewise, he must break the mould and build a new administrative capital, equally for the sake of posterity. It would be an attempt to save the twin cities from choking to death.

The Hyderabad-Bhongir axis is perfectly suitable because of the ready availability of government-owned vacant land and the existing transport infrastructure.

It lies on the main Secunderabad to Kazipet rail link that joins the twin cities to Delhi in the north, Kolkata in the east and Madras in the south. The construction of a new mega rail terminal here will reduce the pressure on the Secunderabad terminus and ease the congestion around it. The new Metro line also begins at Nagole and by extending it a bit more the new capital area will be linked to the Metro grid. The outer ring road also gives it fast access to Shamshabad airport.

Expansion avenues for the twin cities are quite limited, considering its hemmed-in in the north by the cantonment and military facilities. Its expansion towards the west is limited both by Begumpet airport which now sits plumb centre in Secunderabad and by the Sanatnagar and Balanagar industrial areas. The only direction the urban habitation can extend is between the east and the south.

The underused Begumpet airport was established in 1937 as a domestic and international terminal for the Nizam’s Deccan Airways. With the onset of World War II, the Royal Air Force began using this airfield to train pilots. After the War, the airport reverted to complete civilian control. It was due to the generosity of the Hyderabad state government that in October 1951, the Indian Air Force was allowed to move its No. 1 Air Force Academy from Ambala to Begumpet. In 1956, the Air Force Academy, now redesignated as Air Force College, moved out of Begumpet and the station was named “Air Force Station, Hyderabad”. In 1963, No. 1 Transport Training Wing was moved to AFS Hyderabad and remained there till its amalgamation into the TTW Bangalore in 1968.

Air Force Station Begumpet as we know it today, was established in 1968, and remains so till this date. Its utility and place in the IAF’s scheme of things is very limited. Instead of seeking to repossess the Parade and Gymkhana grounds from the ministry of defence, the state government will do well to repossess the Begumpet airport from the IAF and build a new financial and commercial centre for the twin cities here. In any case, any new construction in Secunderabad’s only open space will be restricted in height because it comes in the Begumpet flight path.

While the Metro will help in decongesting, it will also serve to build traffic pressure along its arteries. We can see this in Gurgaon and other places in the Delhi-NCR where vehicle density and waiting dramatically increase at metro stations. To keep this pressure low, the twin cities need a secondary mass transit system, like a monorail. Monorails cost less and require lesser space on the ground. Besides the minimum economic size of the train will also be less, meaning more trains and routes. Chandrasekhar Rao has shown himself to be capable of out-of-the-box thinking. He now needs to use that rare quality among politicians to unbox the twin cities that their unchecked and rampant growth has boxed them into.

The writer held senior positions in government and industry, and is a policy analyst studying economic and security issues. He also specialises in the Chinese economy.