After residents filed a PIL with the NGT, it directed the GHMC to carry out an inspection of the area and take appropriate action within four weeks.
Published Sep 23, 2023 | 10:30 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 25, 2023 | 7:34 PM
A few minutes of heavy downpour invariably leaves residents of the Chandanagar Colony in the Serilingampally locality of Hyderabad — and commuters passing through the area — stranded. This is because the two railway underpasses at the Lingampally Railway Station have been flooding constantly.
When South First visited the spot and spoke with local residents, they said the rains cut off people from the railway station and several other nearby areas.
“In 2022, 88-year-old Subbaiya lost his life as he could not reach the hospital in time because the rainwater obstructed the route,” Baddam Reddy, the president of the nearby Pappireddy Colony Welfare Association, told South First.
We also spoke to shopkeepers, commuters, auto drivers, and residents of the Pappireddy Colony in Chandanagar, which is nearly 2 km from the railway underpass opposite the Serilingampally Zila Parishad High School (ZPHS).
The locals said they filed a petition with the Southern Zone bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in August, in which they claimed that the severe flooding was a fallout of the rampant encroachments on the lakebeds of the nearby Gopi and Chakalavani cheruvus (lakes).
Almost all the people South First spoke to identified the swamping of the railway underpass as a major issue.
Avinash Kumar, a shopkeeper at Agra Sweets near the underpass, told South First: “It gets heavily filled with water even if it rains for 15-20 minutes. As a result, we get fewer customers.”
Munna, one of the auto drivers at a makeshift auto stand beside the railway underpass, said people walk down from the station to either side when the underpass is submerged.
To avoid accidents, the GHMC has been barricading the road on either side of the bridge whenever the underpass is waterlogged, where RTC buses used to stuck.
Near lingampally railway bridge. Pls avoid.
WA Fwd by a friend pic.twitter.com/0uuSKaFq4I
— సుస్మిత – MySoulSpeaks! (@soulfullysush) July 20, 2023
Baddam Reddy said the underpass was filled almost half of the year. “Children had to miss school on some occasions,” he noted. “Meanwhile, most of the people here are from the working classes, and can’t afford to miss a day’s work.”
Baddam Reddy said the Chandanagar area, which has an estimated population of 50,000 and around 35,000-40,000 voters as per the 2011 census, has only the Lingampally-to-railway station road for the whole area — comprising the Rajiv Gruhakalpa, Rajiv Swagruha, and Surabhi Colonies.
Serilingampally railway under bridge during rains. (X)
“It is essential because it is going to facilitate the residents of Pappiredy Colony, RGK, Surabhi Colony, and Swagruha to reach the main road towards Gachibowli and Hitech City. The existing road is not adequate in width. Many accidents keep happening there,” he claimed.
In a letter to the GHMC zonal commissioner in 2021, Seringampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi demanded the widening of the newly constructed 150-foot road.
“GHMC Commissioner D Ronald Rosse came and inspected the area on 1 September and said work would be done soon. We have since given several representations to the zonal commissioners, but the work has not been done so far,” Reddy said.
He added: “Heavy silt — along with plastic covers, water bottles, and a lot of other litter — inside the Lingampally canal connecting the lakes is not being cleaned properly.”
The 2002 Telangana Water, Land, and Trees Act, among other things, gives the state’s citizens the power to protect the groundwater and surface water and conserve water sources, land, and the environment.
Hyderabad-based NGO Human Rights & Consumer Protection Cell Trust (HR&CPCT) lodged a petition with the Southern Zone of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to eliminate all the unauthorised structures encroaching upon the Gopi and Chakalavani cheruvus, along with their associated floodwater channels.
An alleged illegal structure being raised near the Gopi Cheruvu. (Supplied)
The not-for-profit, in its PIL, claimed that the “severe flooding” of the Lingampally railway underpass had a ripple effect on the local residential colonies and commuters in and around the area.
According to the applicant, a 2020 PIL filed in the Telangana High Court sought a direction to the Telangana government and other stakeholders to protect over 3,000 lakes — including the Gopi and Chakalavani cheruvus — across seven districts under the control of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
The NGT, in its order, noted that the GHMC had not responded even after a month to the applicant’s representation to the zonal commissioner.
It urged the corporation to allocate adequate funds and resources to maintain the infrastructure and prevent recurring problems due to flooding in the affected areas.
Another alleged structure being raised near Gopi cheruvu. (Supplied)
HR & CPCT managing trustee Thakur Raj Kumar Singh told South First, “The water’s natural gradient in the area is towards the northern side, while there are two water bodies — the Gopi and Chakalvani cheruvus — on the south. These two reservoirs have been completely encroached upon. Thus, it does not matter whether the rainfall is 1 cm or 10 cm: Water stagnates easily.”
He further explained, “The stored water recedes every summer, but the reservoirs fill up when it rains. With more rain, the water runs into the railway underpass”
He added: “The canal taking the water north is fully encroached upon. So, the water stagnates for two to three days. Local residents have been facing this for the last four to five years.”
Residents told South First that encroachments have been rampant around the Gopi cheruvu over the past two years.
“There are several recent encroachments — including the Venkat Reddy school — around the cheruvu. We raised objections, but no one listened,” Baddam Reddy said.
The satellite images of Gopi cheruvu from 2018, 2020, and 2023 show a landmass in the southern and eastern parts of the water body, which has shrunk significantly as a result of alleged encroachments.
The lake bed, which has now been filled, has three towers coming up on the landmass right, according to satellite images from 2021 and 2023. Several other real-estate projects were also underway near the Gopi cheruvu.
“Most of these encroachments are supported by builders,” alleged Gajjala Yogananda, a BJP leader who contested the 2018 Assembly elections from Serinlingampally. His Kukatpally-based non-profit Gajjala Yoganand Foundation is also one of the applicants to the NGT.
In the Chakalavani cheruvu, the encroachment has been more upfront. A graveyard is marked within the lake’s full tank level (FTL) area. It has brought down the capacity of the lake by almost half, as per reports.
Preliminary notifications for the fencing of the FTLs for both lakes were reportedly issued in 2014, but no final notification has been issued till now, which means that the FTL area is not fenced yet.
A GHMC worker at the underpass, who was pumping out the rainwater on 13 September, told South First, “Drains at this (far) end get filled when it rains. The drains are also not working properly.”
The Hindu reported in August that the GHMC planned to expand stormwater drainage from the Chakalavani cheruvu to the underpass. This could have helped prevent flooding there.
C Sri Kanti, the executive engineer for Serilingampally in the GHMC’s engineering wing, told South First that the corporation had sanctions and released ₹4 crore to remodel the drainage channel system near the railway underpass.
Explaining the issue, she said, “Currently, there are two drains and three pipes of 900-mm diameter in the railway underpass drainage system. There has been constant rainfall this year. The drains are not proving effective anymore. The pipes have silt. The news pipes will facilitate the flow of water.”
The GHMC engineer also pointed to a dump yard beside the cheruvus as a major problem — especially during the rainy season — in that litter from it blocks the pipes.
Sri Kanti noted that a new contract had been given and a box drain (2.5 metres wide) would be built, as would a box culvert (bigger than the box drain).
“The contractors will carry out their own survey, different from the one carried out earlier by the GHMC. The work will be completed by December,” she said
While a box culvert is a kind of concrete structure used to channel water, primarily as part of a drainage system, and is bigger than the box drain, the latter is an underground drain usually square in shape.
Hyderabad-based activist Lubna Sarwath reportedly opposed the GHMC building box drains for clearing the excess water.
Writing to Telangana MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao, she attached satellite images and demanded that the lakes be cleared of encroachments, allowed to fill to their full extent, and restored.
Environmentalist and ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition Guest Faculty D Narsimha Reddy said rapid constructions had been made around the two cheruvus, and claimed that the box culverts were not going to be a permanent solution.
Gopi Cheruvu from Pappireddy colony in Chandanagar. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
“The GHMC needs to carry out a basic survey of the greater depth area around the bridge and which point should be the lowest, and also find out the water yield potential of that catchment area,” he told South First.
“They also need to study comprehensively the catchment area, where the water is getting collected every time it rains heavily,” he said, adding that the state irrigation department had a vital role to play in the issue.
“Suppose there is a 10-hectare water body. When it rains, it becomes 12 hectares. The additional two hectares is called a flat-plain area. Long back, these additional lands used to be given to the poor people for agriculture, but now it has stopped. The fields used to be in downstream and low-lying areas. The irrigation department has a role to protect them but they are not doing it,” he explained.
“Earlier, the water fell on the ground and would usually sink and recharge the groundwater levels. It meant the time lapse between rainfall and then the flow reaching the lake was usually longer. But now, with the concrete cementing, the water immediately gets converted to a flow,” he added, explaining another reason for the flooding.
