Centre-sponsored urban flood-risk management programme yet to start in Hyderabad

MoHUA and NDMA slow in releasing funds for Urban Flood Risk Management Programme in Hyderabad.

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), which, together with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), had launched the Urban Flood Risk Management Programme (UFRMP) for select cities in the country, has been lackadaisical in releasing funds for the same.

Two years after proposals were invited from the Telangana government for measures towards implementation of the programme in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, not a single rupee has been released from either MoHUA or the NDMA.

The programme was launched in 2022 after the 15th Finance Commission allocated ₹1,500 crore under the National Disaster Mitigation Fund for urban flood mitigation in the seven most populous cities of the country.

The primary objectives of the UFRMP are two fold: to use the lakes in flood control by making them absorb the excess flow temporarily and release it at a safe rate over a period of time, and to restore the stormwater drains by delinking sewage flow.

Hyderabad was one of the seven cities, with the others being Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Pune. It was allocated ₹250 crore under the programme, to be released over five years starting from 2023-24. The fund can be utilised to undertake structural and non-structural stormwater management projects over the said duration.

Later, the NDMA rolled out similar programmes for nine more cities, but not a even a single tranche of the promised funding has reached Hyderabad.

The GHMC had sent proposals worth ₹141.37 crore for 47 lakes under the component of rejuvenation and restoration of waterbodies to make them function as minor flood-control structures. Measures such as bund strengthening and protection; installation of sluice valves; and creation of inlets as part of flow regulation had been proposed.