DC Edit | Greater Hyderabad Sets Record
The Telangana government has finally officially notified the administrative set-up that will run Hyderabad’s newly expanded civic body – the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) – the country’s largest municipal corporation.
Till the first week of December, the Hyderabad metropolitan region, surrounded by the Outer Ring Road, was governed by a number of mismatched civic bodies, including the GHMC, seven other municipal corporations and 20 municipalities. Of these, GHMC was the largest civic body with a territorial jurisdiction of 650 square kilometres.
In January 2025, chief minister A. Revanth Reddy first talked about the need to streamline the municipal administration and unify the city under a single authority on the lines of several global cities. Large cities can establish city-wide systems with long-term planning. As a result, the Congress government merged all 27 urban local bodies into Hyderabad, creating the country’s largest municipal corporation with a geographical spread of 2,000 square kilometers and a population of 1.34 million.
Compared to the expanded GHMC, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation manages an area of 480 sq km, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike manages 709 sq km, Greater Chennai Corporation 426 sq km and Kolkata Municipal Corporation 206 sq km. Even the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which was divided into three urban bodies in 2012, was managing 1,397.3 sq km in terms of area. GHMC is 2.5 times larger than Singapore and almost as large as Mauritius.
While the intention behind creating a mega-Hyderabad is laudable, the real purpose of the municipal government should not be overlooked: to solve people’s problems related to basic civic amenities at the local level. However, if a city becomes larger than the 27 very small states, larger than the national capital Delhi (1,484 sq km) and two-thirds the size of a state like Goa, its administration can become cumbersome, effectively turning it into a state within a state. People should have access to basic needs closer to home.
