HYDERABAD: Hyderabad’s municipal corporation is set to grow more than 12 times bigger with the state government planning to merge seven adjoining municipal corporations and 30 municipalities with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The post-merger entity will be called Hyderabad Greater City Corporation (HGCC).
To put the size of the new civic body in perspective, the new entity will be spread over 8,000 square kilometres, whereas the existing GHMC is just 650 sq km. The new civic body will be bigger than the city’s urban development authority HMDA, which has 7,257 sq. km under its jurisdiction.
Official sources said that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who holds the municipal administration and urban development portfolio, has directed senior officials to draft a law for the HGCC, which will replace the GHMC Act. “The government plans to introduce the legislation in the Assembly, either in the monsoon session in July or the winter session.”
The adjoining municipal corporations that will get merged to the civic body of the Hyderabad mega city include Nizampet, Boduppal, Meerpet, Jillelguda, Bandlaguda Jagir, Badangpet, Peerzadiguda and Jawaharnagar. Apart from these municipal corporations, 30 municipalities located on city outskirts will also be merged with the GHMC.
The tenure of the existing municipalities will end in January 2025 and the GHMC elections are due for December 2025. In view of the government’s mega city plans, elections for the seven adjoining municipal corporations and 30 municipalities will not be held along with local bodies elections this year to facilitate the merger.
The government, therefore, proposed to appoint special officers for these seven corporations and 30 municipalities after their tenure ends in January 2025.
The previous BRS government had set up these seven new municipal corporations and 30 municipalities surrounding Hyderabad in July 2019 by merging surrounding gram panchayats.
The Congress government, which came to power in December 2023, is keen to expand GHMC to a mega civic body to ensure uniform development, equal distribution of funds among all areas around Hyderabad.
At present, there is huge variation in financial resources of these urban local bodies. While some corporations and municipalities have deep pockets, others face severe fund crunch, which adversely affects development programmes in such local bodies.
After the formation of the mega civic body, the government plans to divide it into four zones — east, west, north, and south — to offer better governance and services for people.
Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) was created in 1956. Later, the previous Congress government led by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy amended the MCH Act in 2007 to create GHMC by merging 12 municipalities and eight gram panchayats surrounding Hyderabad.
