Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) reclaimed 923 acres of government land worth Rs.50,000 crore during the last one year.
HYDRAA Commissioner A.V. Ranganath said on Monday that the agency reclaimed 923.14 acres of government land, lakes, parks, nalas and roads.
He told a press conference that since its formation on July 19 last year, HYDRAA conducted 96 drives to remove about 581 encroachments.
The reclaimed land include 424 acres of government land, 233 acres of lakes and 218 acres of roads. The agency also removed encroachment on 15 acres of nala and 25 acres of parks.
The Commissioner said that HYDRAA so far received about 5,000 complaints about encroachments of lakes, parks, roads, nalas, government land and illegal layouts. Almost 75 per cent complaints were redressed with focus on settlements and resolving waterlogging issues, he said.
The Telangana government constituted HYDRAA as a dedicated agency for prevention and mitigation of disasters and also for protection of public assets, parks, nalas, open spaces and government lands within Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR) covering 2,055 square kilometres across 150 wards of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), seven other corporations and 20 municipalities.
Ranganath said HYDRAA has undertaken restoration and rejuvenation of six lakes at a cost of Rs.58.40 crore. These include Bathukamma Lake at Amberpet, which is ready for opening by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on September 26.
He revealed that due to the rejuvenation of six lakes, their area has increased from 105 acres to 180 acres, thus retrieving about 75 acres of encroached lands.
The Commissioner said installation of 1000 CCTV cameras in 180 lakes in GHMC jurisdiction is under progress with an estimated cost of Rs.8.60 crore.
HYDRAA has identified 14 more lakes for rejuvenation and sent the proposals to the government.
The agency plans to take up drone-based FTL finalisation for lakes. It will also monitor and detect annual change. Geo fencing of tanks, nalas and government assets will also be taken up.
The proposals include real-time dashboards and alerts for inter-departmental coordination.
HYDRAA has 51 Disaster Response Force (DRF) teams with 825 personnel to address emergencies. The number of teams will be increased to 72 this year, the Commissioner added.
