The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has its own ‘Vana Mahotsavam’ on the side, at culverts of the stormwater drains in the city as vouched by the greenery growing out of the mounds of silt removed from the drains.
In a curious instance which speaks volumes about the quality of the corporation’s drain desilting works, castor plants could be seen growing out of the silt deposited on the roadside at Aramghar in Rajendranagar Circle.
Two pictures were taken of the same location with a gap of just over a month, the first picture on May 27, of a mound of silt on the side of a nala culvert, and the second, on July 9, of a bushy growth of castor plants on the mound at the same location. A bag of waste, dumped near the mound and remaining at the same location after a month, speaks loudly of the effectiveness of sanitation in the area.
The GHMC begins the desilting operations for clearing the stormwater drains ahead of monsoons. Bids are called circle-wise, agencies are selected, and the works are given, with the GHMC confined to supervisory role. As per the procedure, after desilting, the silt is deposited on the roadside and allowed to sit there for a while till it becomes dry, before being carted off to the solid waste management facility at Jawaharnagar. Wet silt cannot be carried as it drips along the way creating difficulty to the commuters, and also because wet silt weighs more – costing the GHMC more for its treatment.
However, carting of the silt is one problematic area where complaints abound with little action. The silt deposited near the catchpits mostly flows back into the drain during rains. Occasionally, when the silt is high in quantity, vegetation grows out of it as in the present case.
Social media platform X is full of complaints about uncarted silt from areas such as Kurmaguda, Kukatpally, Uppal, Santoshnagar and several other localities. Action is scarce even when the complaint is registered in My GHMC app.
“GHMC’s drainage cleaning process is incomplete, with workers removing silt from drains but not properly disposing of it, leaving it piled up near the drains causes unhygienic conditions, foul smells and citizen inhaling flying dust from silt….” complains one Nagarju Talari, an X user.
The Hyderabad Disaster Response & Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) forces on Friday, repeated the desilting operations on the Bulkapur drain near Khairatabad, which yielded tonnes of trash carelessly thrown into the drain. Large amount of thermocol and plastic waste was retrieved from the drain which had been desilted already as part of the pre-monsoon drive.
“Garbage comes flowing every day, and gets stuck at the culvert, requiring continuous desilting operations. Desilting is not strictly our job, but we are pitching in to ensure free flow of stormwater in the drains in case of heavy rain,” said HYDRAA Commissioner A. V. Ranganath.
Published – July 12, 2025 08:14 am IST
