CURE Act to help faster, planned growth of Hyderabad and its surroundings: Minister Sridhar Babu

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The Telangana Legislative Assembly on Saturday passed the Core Urban Region (Integrated Governance) Bill, 2026 with a voice vote, though the members of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Communist Party of India (CPI) members expressed some reservations and apprehensions over some of the provisions.

Introducing the Bill, Minister for Legislative Affairs D. Sridhar Babu on behalf of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, said the expansion of the city was taking place very fast, and it would require uniform governance, rules and standardised practices with decentralised administration for more effective governance. Towards making Telangana a $1 trillion economy by 2034 and $3 trillion economy by 2047, Hyderabad and its surrounding would play a crucial role.

Stating that the services sector was contributing 68% to the GSDP, the Minister said Hyderabad and its surroundings needed to be redeveloped into a larger core economic growth engine. He noted that the CURE area within the Outer Ring Road limits would cover 2,053 sq. km. area covering municipalities and nagar panchayats, besides the GHMC area. A LiDAR survey was conducted to prepare 3D mapping for roads, buildings, utilities, nalas/drains, drainage and stormwater drainage systems keeping in mind the needs for the next 2-3 decades.

The GSDP had grown by 10.7% from ₹16.09 lakh crore in 2024-25 to ₹17.82 lakh crore in 2025-26, with most of it coming from the CURE area comprising Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts. With a view to catering to the growing public transportation needs, the government had taken up a comprehensive mobility plan to add 122.9 km of Metro Rail network in seven corridors in the second phase and to take the total length to 258.3 km by 2030 and 556.6 km by 2035.

Not only that but the government had also taken up H-City infrastructure development project with ₹7,032 crore to construct more flyovers and underpasses and planned to spend ₹7,345 crore for the Musi River Front Development Project. By forming HYDRAA, the government had reclaimed/resumed 3,325 acres of land worth ₹1.5 lakh crore, restored 6 tanks and restoring another 14. Planning to bring 20 tmc ft Godavari water under Phase-2 and 3 with ₹7,360 crore.

The CURE Act was enacted to replace the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act made in 1955 when the population of Hyderabad was just 15 lakh and now it is about 1.3 crore. Now, the GHMC had been reorganised into Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Malkajgiri MC and Cyberabad MC for decentralised administration, with greater focus on development of civic infrastructure and amenities.

The new CURE Act would have 319 sections, 9 schedules, 5 parts and 43 chapters by removing the unnecessary sections and including the needed ones, the Minister stated. Congress members Danam Nagender, Sriganesh, N. Padmavathi Reddy, V. Naveen Yadav and Malreddy Ranga Reddy spoke in support of the Bill.

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