Commercial buildings encroaching into Picket Nala pulled down

HYDRAA officials demolished commercial structures illegally built over the stormwater nala at Patny Center, in Secunderabad on Friday.
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

Nearly two-and-a-half years after the Picket Nala development and remodelling project was completed and the improved drain was inaugurated near Rasoolpura Junction, the Hyderabad Disaster Response & Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) pulled down commercial buildings blocking the drain.

The original breadth of the nala, at 70 feet, has been constricted to 15 to 18 feet near the culvert at the centre due to the buildings which were constructed encroaching into the nala. In 2022, the drain was remodelled near Rasoolpura Junction spending ₹10 crore.

The culvert near the old Anand theatre of Rasoolpura Junction is 18 metres (60 feet) wide, but the drain which collects flood water from Secunderabad Cantonment area, narrows down to just five metres (16 feet) before it enters the Patny properties stretch, a joint inspection by the HYDRAA with Cantonment Board, GHMC, Revenue, Irrigation and other departments has revealed on Thursday. With Hasmathpet drain joining Picket Nala at the same place, the narrowed down drain is proving to be insufficient to carry the flood water.

After confirming the encroachments, the HYDRAA forces demolished six structures on a 150-metre stretch on the drain. Nala widening and retaining wall works will be taken up immediately, to be completed in 15 days, officials informed.

Owing to the narrowing of the drain, locations such as Paigah Colony, Patny Compound, Patny Colony, Viman Nagar, BHEL Colony and Indiramma Nagar are experiencing flooding. Several complaints had been received by HYDRAA before it swung into action, a statement from the agency informed.

“Just because of a handful of private individuals/ buildings, thousands of residents in the locality are suffering. Many are from poor/ middle class. Even for 2-5 centimetres rainfall, the water gets stagnated and causes huge losses to the poor and lower middle classes[sic],” HYDRAA chief A.V. Ranganath said.

Also, the stretch has been de-silted as part of the operations, which will phenomenally increase the discharge or carrying capacity of the nala, he said.

HYDRAA is now studying all the areas where water logging is a frequent phenomenon, in order to understand the causative factors, and more operations will be taken up against encroachments into water bodies in order to attempt and save lakhs of people from inundation, he said, assuring that care will be taken to ensure lower middle classes do not suffer.

Commercial buildings which are hindering the water flow in the nalas alone will be removed. If any structures of poor people are to be removed under emergency situations, HYDRAA will take up the issue with government for compensation, Mr. Ranganath said.