The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has remained largely a work in progress during the year 2025, with no major achievements to speak of, nor any calamitous events to bring it down.
The expansion of the corporation towards the year-end leading to creation of the largest municipal corporation in the country area wise, has been the sole noteworthy event this year. Government has added to the GHMC’s purview, 20 municipalities and seven municipal corporations which fall fully or partially within the Telangana Core Urban Region.
The area governed by the corporation has grown more than threefold with the move, from 650 square kilometres to 2,053 square kilometres. A ward delimitation exercise followed, at the end of which GHMC emerged in its new format with 300 wards/divisions parcelled into 12 zones and 30 circles.
Over the past 12 months, no major infrastructural project has been grounded, and very few were completed. Beginning with the inauguration of a four-kilometre flyover between Aramghar and Nehru Zoological Park, the year has also seen opening of the P. Janardhan Reddy flyover at Gachibowli, and the parallel Road over Bridge (ROB) at Falaknuma, both initiated as part of the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP).
The Hyderabad City Innovative and Transformative Infrastructure (H-CITI) project with 38 components, launched with much fanfare towards the end of 2024, has not progressed much this year, with hardly any project hitting the ground running. While tendering process has been completed for several components, property acquisition stands as a major hurdle.
On the sanitation front, the corporation has had the most depressing year, with garbage mounds flourishing uncontrollably across the city. Sweeping of the roads, the most basic function of a civic body, has remained wanting, as the workforce was not managed effectively. A 100% door-to-door collection is still a distant dream, and garbage clearance from public areas too has slid this year, flagging serious supervision lapses.
The corporation, amply aided by the Hyderabad Disaster Response & Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), fared better in flood management despite intense localised rains extending up to November this year. Hectic last minute desilting operations by HYDRAA saved the day for the civic body, though it had not helped four persons being washed away by storm water in three different instances.
GHMC’s financial condition has started to look up from its insolvent status back in 2023-24, thanks to the rising property tax collection and fund infusion by the government from time to time. For the financial year ending March 31, 2025, the corporation set a new record, with ₹2,038 crore in property tax collection. Another record followed, with GHMC’s Early Bird scheme fetching an unprecedented tax collection of ₹901 crore within the first month of the financial year. Government grants for the corporation through the year amounted to a substantial ₹1,704 crore, mostly for the H-CITI project.
Published – December 30, 2025 08:32 pm IST
