Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president KT Rama Rao has criticised the Telangana government over the Musi Riverfront Beautification project, questioning its timing, public consultation process and project preparedness amid drought conditions in the state.
In a post on X on November 9, Rama Rao alleged that public hearings connected with the project had taken place without genuine public participation. He also claimed that project bids were invited before a Detailed Project Report, or DPR, had been prepared.
“Public hearing without the public. Project bids being called without a DPR (Detailed Project Report). And the irony of it is ‘Beautification’ in the middle of a drought,” Rama Rao wrote. He described the government as a “Tughlak Govt” and used the hashtag “#MusiLoot” in the post.
The remarks place the Musi Riverfront project within a wider dispute over how Hyderabad’s major urban interventions are planned, publicly discussed and sequenced against immediate water and climate pressures. However, the report does not include a response from the Telangana government, details of the alleged bids, or the government’s position on the status of the DPR.
A DPR is generally used to establish a project’s technical scope, design, estimated cost, implementation approach and execution requirements. The report does not independently establish whether bids were formally invited, what component of the Musi project they concerned, or whether preparatory procurement activity had taken place before a final DPR.
The report also does not provide details of the public hearings, including their dates, locations, attendance or the process used to record public feedback. Those details would be necessary to assess Rama Rao’s allegation that the hearings lacked genuine public participation.
The political criticism comes as Telangana is described in the report as facing drought conditions. The immediate question raised by the dispute is how the state is balancing a large riverfront beautification intervention with water stress and the administrative requirements of transparent project preparation. Further clarity is expected from the state government on the DPR, procurement process and public consultation record.
