Uproar over demolition along Musi river in Hyderabad

Telangana's plan to demolish 10,000 homes along the Musi river in Hyderabad sparks protests; officials promise rehabilitation for displaced families.

The Telangana government’s decision to demolish 10,000-odd dwellings along the Musi river in Hyderabad and adjoining districts has triggered massive protests from the residents, even as the authorities on Saturday assured that all steps would be taken to rehabilitate the displaced families.

In total, 2,116 houses were found to have been constructed on the river bed of Musi and another 7,850 in its buffer zone, according to an official. (REUTERS)

Principal secretary of municipal administration and urban development Dana Kishore, who is also the managing director of MRDC, told reporters on Saturday that the entire Musi river stretch has turned into a slum with storm water being let out into the river.

“If there are floods to Musi river, it is the illegal occupants of the river bed who will suffer. The objective of Musi riverfront project was to expand the width of the river which has become congested due to encroachments, so that Hyderabad will be safe even when there are heavy floods,” he said.

Since Thursday, the officials of the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation (MRDC) and revenue officials of Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts faced stiff resistance from the residents whose houses were marked for demolition in the next few days.

In all, 2,116 houses were found to have been built on the river bed of Musi and another 7,850 in its buffer zone, according to an official. In the first phase, the authorities served notices for demolition of 1,600 occupied houses in the Musi riverbed.

Kishore said that the project was taken up not only to beautify the riverfront, but also to prevent floods to the Musi river.

“In the past, too, there were massive floods to Musi river and due to massive encroachments on riverbed, the floods would submerge several colonies. There were several occasions when people were evacuated to safer places. We have seen how Hyderabad is being flooded even with a rainfall of a few cm,” Kishore said.

Kishore said as part of the project, the government was planning to create east and west corridors along the 50-km long stretch of the river and see that fresh water will flow in the Musi river by June 2026. The effluents entering the river would be treated in sewage treatment plants being built at ₹3,800 crore, he said.

“If not now, the occupants of the Musi river bed will have to be evacuated one day or the other. We shall provide double bedroom houses to all the evacuees and see that they would be provided with employment opportunities. We are not forcibly shifting any resident and we are offering them an amicable settlement,” the MRDC managing director said.

However, the authorities who have been visiting colonies along the Musi river course at Langar House, Asad Baba Nagar, Chaderghat, Amberpet and Moosaram Bagh faced strong protests from the locals. At Amberpet, hundreds of protests staged a dharna demanding the governments decision to evacuate the people.

“How can we vacate the houses, where we have been living for decades? What will happen to the education of our children studying in nearby schools? We shall lose our livelihood if we are moved elsewhere,” a woman resident said at Attapur.

Another resident told reporters that they will not move to the double-bedroom houses located on the outskirts of the city like Kollur or Uppal. “We have been paying taxes and electricity bills here. We don’t want to move to far off places, where we can’t find any livelihood,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Saturday declared that it would wage an all out war against demolitions in the name of Musi riverfront project.

Senior BRS leader and former minister T Harish Rao held a meeting at Telangana Bhavan with the residents of various colonies along the Musi river, who are facing displacement. He pledged solidarity with them and assured that the BRS would extend free legal aid to all such families and challenge their displacement in the court of law.

“Musi riverfront project, we thought, is meant for cleaning up of Musi river water and making it potable. But the government is trying to displace thousands of families, who have been staying there in pucca houses for several decades. They will be losing their lifetime earnings and fortunes,” Rao said.

He urged the government to reconsider its approach and prioritize the welfare of its citizens.

A delegation of BRS MLAs is planning to visit the affected areas on Sunday to extend moral support to them and prevent any kind of forcible eviction of people from their houses, the BRS leader added.