Waterlogging to floods: GHMC spends only 14% of Rs 903 Cr budget on Nala development

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has never fully spent the budget sanctioned for the Nalas, an RTI response has revealed.

There is a considerable difference between the sanctioned amount and the expenditure since 2014.

Despite the sanctioned amount of Rs 970 crore, GHMC has spent only 14.56 percent (approximately Rs 141 crore) as of 31 October 2022.

In 2021-22, the budget was 66.63 crore. This year, the budget was increased by Rs 903 crore.

The RTI was filed by city-based activist Kareem Ansari. He sought data and expenditures on Nala development between 02 June 2014 and 31 October 2022.

"In monsoon this year, I observed that a few minutes of rain was causing water logging. There was waterlogged below the newly inaugurated Bahadurpura flyover, near D Mart in Attapur and many other places," Kareem said.

Kareem stated that this pushed him to seek data related to Nala work under GHMC. "It is surprising to see that GHMC has not utilized the sanctioned amount fully," he said.

So far 2022-23 is the highest sanctioned amount. As per the RTI, the second highest sanctioned amount was in 2017-18- Rs 257 crores. It is pertinent to note that this is also the year in which GHMC spent only 10 percent of the budget sanctioned.

In 2014-15, Rs 75.29 crore was sanctioned of which nearly 66% (Rs 50.19 crore) was spent.

In 2015-16, the sanctioned amount took a slight dip- Rs 65.22 crore. This year, nearly 56% of the sanctioned amount (Rs 50.19 crore) was spent.

In 2016-17, the sanctioned amount was slashed by 45 percent to Rs 35.33 crore. Of this, nearly 74% - Rs 26.32 crore was spent.

In 2017-18, as mentioned above, the sanctioned amount rose to Rs 257 crore and this was also the year when the least expenses were incurred.

In 2018-19, Rs 166 crore were sanctioned of which nearly 44% (Rs 72.64 crore) was spent by the GHMC.

In 2019-20, Rs 65.08 was sanctioned. The expenditure this year was around 57% (Rs 37.52 crore)

In the following year, 2020-21, Rs 53.83 crore was sanctioned. Not only was the whole sanctioned amount spent this year, but an additional nearly Rs 1 crore was also spent taking the entire expenses to Rs 54.43 crore.

In 2021-22, Rs 66.63 crore was sanctioned. 76% of the sanctioned amount (Rs 51.17 crore) was spent this year.