As monsoon clouds loom over Hyderabad, the city’s stormwater management agency has launched an aggressive campaign to clean nalas, remove encroachments, and avert the annual flood chaos that haunts low-lying neighbourhoods. The operations, led by Hyderabad Road Development Authority and Administration (HYDRAA), go beyond contractual obligations in a bid to ensure smoother water flow and better climate resilience.
While much of India scrambles to react to flooding once it’s underway, Hyderabad is taking a proactive stance. Nearly 150 Monsoon Emergency Teams (METs), along with 51 Disaster Response Force (DRF) teams, have been working around the clock—rain or shine—to address the core causes of urban waterlogging: silted drains, plastic waste, and illegal constructions choking the city’s natural drainage channels. According to officials, this pre-monsoon push is not just about clearing garbage—it’s about protecting communities. “We are leveraging all available manpower and machinery even on non-rainy days, which allows us to stay one step ahead,” said a senior HYDRAA official. “This effort may not be specified in our tender clauses, but it directly addresses flooding, which is the bigger challenge.”
The campaign spans 940 culverts within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits. These crucial drainage points, often overlooked except in emergencies, are being manually and mechanically cleared of built-up silt, construction debris, and solid waste. With Hyderabad’s rapid urbanisation and increasing rainfall variability due to climate change, clogged culverts can mean instant street inundation, public inconvenience, and substantial property damage. HYDRAA’s coordination with the GHMC engineering wing and Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP) engineers is enabling a deeper, more scientific approach to nala maintenance. Their shared goal: identify bottlenecks, streamline stormwater flow, and secure flood-prone catchment areas before intense showers hit.
One of the focal areas of this season’s clean-up is Nallagandla HUDA Colony, where a key nala—originating from Nallagandla Lake and draining through Doctors Colony, Rail Vihar, and Old Serilingampally Village—has been under severe stress. Encroachments, in the form of illegal residential buildings and apartment complexes, had constricted the natural flow of stormwater, causing recurrent monsoon misery for surrounding residents. In a bold move, demolition drives were launched to reclaim the encroached land and unblock the drainage channel. Some residents voluntarily dismantled unlawful constructions, while others were cleared by enforcement teams. Officials confirmed that these actions are aligned with SNDP guidelines, and that the area will now see uninterrupted progress in the construction of a strategic stormwater drain, one that had been held up for years.
Meanwhile, open nalas in other parts of the city, including Madhura Nagar and Krishna Nagar in Yousufguda, as well as Janardhan Reddy Colony in Gachibowli, have also seen extensive clean-up operations. Tonnes of plastic, domestic waste, and construction debris were removed manually and with the help of JCBs, vacuum machines, and silt-carrying trucks. Similar efforts were seen in Markandeya Colony in Kapra Circle, RCI Road in LB Nagar, and Mithila Nagar near Manthrala Cheruvu, which are typically the first neighbourhoods to flood during heavy rainfall. Local residents, often the most impacted by urban flooding, have responded with cautious optimism. Many recall last year’s flooding that left their homes inundated for days. “It’s a relief to finally see proactive work happening before the rains,” said a resident from Kapra, whose neighbourhood had been flooded thrice in one season. “If these drains remain open, we may finally see a monsoon without chaos.”
What makes this initiative different from previous years is its timing and scope. Rather than treating monsoon floods as a disaster response issue, HYDRAA is treating them as a problem of peacetime preparation. The Commissioner of HYDRAA stated that using labour and infrastructure on dry days to prepare for wet days marks a shift in strategy. The city is now approaching flood mitigation as an integral part of urban planning and civic sustainability, not just as emergency management. Experts say that Hyderabad’s renewed attention to stormwater infrastructure could become a model for other cities grappling with extreme weather events. As India’s urban centres continue to grow, climate-responsive civic engineering—especially in drainage—has become a critical need.
The current campaign also reflects broader sustainability goals. In addition to physical interventions, officials noted a shift in attitude towards environmental stewardship, driven partly by the rising economic costs of inaction. With property damage, healthcare expenses, traffic disruptions, and lost productivity resulting from urban flooding, the stakes have never been higher. A climate-resilient Hyderabad demands that public agencies, citizens, and local bodies work in sync. Encroachments must not just be cleared—they must be prevented through robust land-use regulation and community vigilance. Garbage must not only be removed—it must be diverted away from nalas through stronger solid waste management policies and citizen awareness. And most importantly, interventions must be regular, not reactive.
As the skies darken and the city braces for another monsoon, Hyderabad’s ongoing drive offers hope—not just for fewer flooded streets, but for a city striving toward a cleaner, safer, and more equitable future. With the groundwork laid, the coming weeks will test how well the capital’s new monsoon readiness holds up under pressure. Whether this ambitious anti-flooding effort ultimately becomes a benchmark for urban climate adaptation will depend not only on rainfall patterns, but also on consistent implementation, political will, and public cooperation. What’s clear is that Hyderabad has taken a significant step in the right direction—one drain, one culvert, and one encroachment at a time.
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