Rains above 20 cm likely to submerge Kukatpally area: Reports

Hyderabad: Should Greater Hyderabad receive more than 20 cm of rainfall on a single day, in a short period of time, and across all catchment areas, Kukatpally will be submerged. If Hyderabad experiences the floods that Chennai did a few years ago, Kukatpally will be more badly affected than any other division in the city says a report prepared for the GHMC by the infrastructure services firm Voyants.

If Kukatpally is affected badly, it will be a man-made disaster. Some 318 structures here are obstructing the free flow of storm water drains; there are 840 such obstructions across the city.

If this particular catchment area receives flash rains, it will cover the locality.  The Kukatpally hydraulic zone is the most critical of all, as the obstructed drains cannot carry the increased load of water.

GHMC West zonal commissioner Hari Chandana Dasari said that according to the Voyant survey of Hyderabad's storm water drains, Kukatpally was the weakest of the 16 hydraulic zones and had the highest risk perception in terms of submergence.

“Nala widening is the top priority in this division. As per the area contour, Kukatpally has one of the biggest nalas and is also linked to various divisions and Hussainsagar. If this gets flooded, automatically all the connected areas will be inundated. There would be floods across the city too,” she said.

Asked what has led to this situation, the officer said, “Encroachments on nalas and concrete structures on water channels. During a recent inspection, we found out that urban slums and commercial and apartment buildings built on nalas.”

She said that the state government had released Rs 230 crore for the improvement of bottlenecks on storm water drains in the Greater Hyderabad. A large portion of the funds are for widening the Kukatpally area nalas.

Forty-seven storm water drains, with a length of 16.55 km have been identified for improvement.