All About GO 111 Rules in Hyderabad

In 1996, the Andhra Pradesh government, through an order (GO 111) prohibited the establishment of industries and other such structures to come up within a 10 kilometre radius of the Himayatsagar and Osmansagar tanks. The GO 111 rules also mandated that hotels and residential structures should not be constructed near the 84 listed villages in six mandals, namely Shamshabad, Moinabad, Shabad, Shankarpalli, Rajendranagar and Chevella. Basically, GO 111 sought to protect the catchment areas.

The rules, however, could soon become a thing of the past, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has indicated even as environmentalists continue to oppose the move. Environmentalists, who believe increased construction activities in the absence of the rules could pollute the water bodies and its surrounding areas, are likely to stick to their guns on the point. In the past, attempts to do away with the rules did not yield any results.

In 1999, for example, a company that established a plant in Shamshabad within a 10 km radius of the water bodies had approached the Supreme Court to ask for an exemption when the pollution control board had put down their demand. Later, the apex court ruled that the company cannot operate from Shamshabad, given that it could pollute drinking water.

Pros and cons of dissolving the GO 111 rules in Hyderabad

The state government move comes in the backdrop of the fact that Hyderabad is no longer dependent on Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar for drinking water as authorities are laying pipelines to ensure water from the Krishna and the Godavari rivers. However, the city still meets its partial water demand from their resources.

Residents and homebuyers have different points of view. Some argue that many villages are still backward because of these rules in place that forbid any investor attention. “Gandipet, Shankarpally, Maheshwaram, Shamshabad and Qutbullapur are among areas that saw increased interest in real estate and transactions expecting development,” says S Kaif, a broker in the area, adding that Chevella and Shamshabad are areas that saw considerable growth in revenue through registration.

“Shamshabad for one has a good scope but no development,” says Mitali Naidu, a resident of Hyderabad who had invested in Shamshabad when the airport was planned but her plans to gain out of her investment has flopped. Incidentally, the Shamshabad airport itself is a violation of the GO 111 rule. Several IT parks, engineering colleges, farmhouses have come up in violation of this rule. It was reported in 2016 that 12,500 structures violated the rules.

Some others are of the view that the rules must prevail for the larger good. “The GO 111 must be carefully dealt with. Re-survey and identify water flow areas, directions, catchment capacity and lift GO 111 only in areas that can afford to,” says Gamesh Prabhakaran, a real estate dealer in the city. “For other areas, strict action should be taken against violators because a lot is dependent on the health of a state and its resources” he adds.