GHMC office in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to clear the outstanding debt of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and provide financial support to two newly formed municipal corporations, a move aimed at easing the civic body’s financial burden and strengthening urban infrastructure.
According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, the state government will take over GHMC’s debt accumulated since 2014. The civic body had raised loans amounting to about Rs 7,000 crore between 2014 and 2023 through term loans, bonds and other borrowings to fund major infrastructure works across Hyderabad. Of this, the pending loan amount is around Rs 4,780 crore.
The borrowed funds were used primarily for infrastructure projects such as flyovers, underpasses, road overbridges (ROBs), road underbridges (RUBs), revamping the stormwater drain network under the Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP), and road restoration works under the Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme (CRMP).
GHMC had been servicing the debt by paying roughly Rs 100 crore towards loan repayment and interest in the past two years. However, periodic fund shortages had affected the corporation’s ability to maintain civic services, the report said.
It further quoted officials stating the government will also allocate Rs 500 crore each to the newly formed Cyberabad Municipal Corporation and Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation to ensure that they start functioning without inheriting debt burdens.
“Chief Minister Revanth Reddy wants to make sure these corporations do not carry the burden of debt. Hence, the government has decided to take care of the GHMC debt,” a corporation official was quoted as saying in the DC report.
Meanwhile, a report in The New Indian Express said GHMC approached the state government, requesting it to clear pending dues or directly service the loans taken by the civic body for infrastructure works.
Official sources told the publication that the dues payable to GHMC by the state government are estimated to be between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 5,500 crore. These include property tax arrears on government-owned properties, about Rs 2,500 crore towards GHMC’s share of stamp duty, around Rs 150 crore in mutation fees and other statutory transfers.
The civic body had raised loans from nationalised banks and financial institutions for projects such as the Hyderabad City Innovative and Transformative Infrastructure (H-CITI), the Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP), and the Strategic Road Development Programme (SRDP).
According to the report, GHMC’s outstanding debt is estimated between Rs 4,800 crore and Rs 4,900 crore, with the corporation spending nearly Rs 2,000 crore annually on debt servicing.
Officials had warned that delays in clearing dues could affect the civic body’s ability to fund development works across the city.
This post was last modified on March 6, 2026 11:43 am