Hyderabad: 109 buildings come-up in buffer area of Pedda Cheruvu lake

HYDERABAD: It has come to light that in Ramanthapur, which witnessed severe flooding during heavy rains last week, as many as 109 buildings, including 16 residential apartments and another 93 independent houses, have come up in the Full Tank Level (FTL) of Pedda Cheruvu in the past two decades. Interestingly, most of these structures were permitted by civic bodies such as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), erstwhile Uppal municipality, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and erstwhile Uppal gram panchayats.

Now, both GHMC and HMDA are clueless on how to tackle the situation at Pedda Cheruvu, the main hurdle being removing all structures to protect the FTL and fence the area. Most of the lake buffer and FTL area is patta land and occupants can be removed only on payment of compensation to them. According to an estimate based on prevailing market rates, the state government would need `200 crore towards compensation.

According to officials, the irrigation and revenue departments confirmed that of the 32.5 acres, the lake is now left with only 22 acres. In the remaining area, colonies such as Ravindra Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Saichitra Nagar have come up and of the structures there, over 100 are located on the full tank level.

A few days ago, Ravindra Nagar got inundated due to heavy rains. It took three da ys for the civic body and 14 pump sets to drain out water from the colonies. “Water remained stagnant till the sill level of the existing pipe drains across the national highway , which is also the FTL level. There is no sluice to the lake to release water to other areas,“ GHMC zonal commissioner (East Zone) BV Gangadhar Reddy told TOI.

HMDA commissioner T Chiranjeevulu, who is also chairman of the Lake Protection Committee, said, “Regarding lakes in GHMC limits, the HC ordered for acquiring land and buildings, especially patta land, to maintain FTL of lakes. But it is a costly affair.“

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