SCB urges govt to include Secunderabad Cantonment in SNDP

SECUNDERABAD: The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) has urged the state government to include Secunderabad Cantonment in the ambitious Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP), which is meant to identify bottlenecks and encroachments on open nalas in the city.
B Ajith Reddy, SCB’s chief executive officer, confirmed approaching the state government over the issue.
“We have sought assistance from the government to take up a similar study under SNDP in the Cantonment too so as to identify bottlenecks.We experienced severe inundation of as many as 70 residential colonies and a few slums due to the overflowing nalas this year. Encroachments on nalas are major bottlenecks. In fact, SCB is yet to take up a comprehensive survey on the encroachments and, therefore, SNDP would help us remove these encroachments,” said the CEO. “ We have sought Rs 90 crore as flood relief amount,” Reddy added.
After a detailed inspection, SCB took up a drive against encroachments built over nalas. “The land sharks built slabs over the nalas by erecting pillars in the sewage. The pillars have become bottlenecks as they obstruct the free flow of sewage. As a result, the nalas overflowed after the lakes breached the banks,” a senior SCB engineer said.