Hyderabad: The Telangana government is set to introduce a new law to consolidate governance in the Greater Hyderabad region, replacing a 70-year-old municipal law with a system that brings multiple civic bodies, services and specialised agencies under a unified legislative framework.
The Core Urban Region (Integrated Governance) Bill, 2026, known as the CURE Bill, will replace the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act (GHMC), 1955, and is expected to be passed in the ongoing Assembly monsoon session.
Under the revamped architecture, the CURE Bill will constitute an Apex Governance Council and a Utility Coordination Committee (UCC) to unify various services under one umbrella.
The bill, reviewed by ThePrint, says that its primary objective is to move away from fragmented administration toward a modernised system that links civic infrastructure, digital governance, disaster response and urban planning.
“Coordination mechanisms like the UCC would prevent repeated road cutting and create a digital platform for instant or deemed building approvals. It would also establish HYDRAA (Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency) as a municipal law to strictly protect public assets and manage water bodies,” the draft bill said.
Simply put, Hyderabad’s residents would be able to pay municipal dues and service fees through a ‘Common Billing and Payment System’.
Additionally, the city would issue an Integrated Property Identity Code for every residential and commercial property, alongside existing survey numbers used to identify land.
Due to a rapid increase in the city’s population and the expansion of its boundaries, standard municipal functions such as waste segregation and animal control will be subject to rigid statutory rules.
To improve working and living conditions for locals and expats in the city, the bill introduces design mandates enforcing uniform accessibility standards for public streets, pedestrian paths and parks to assist people with disabilities. It also mandates Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
More importantly, the draft bill outlines stringent penalties and restrictions on unauthorised property transfers and electricity and water connection transfers to residential or commercial units that do not have occupancy certificates.
Political implications
With Chief Minister Revanth Reddy controlling the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) ministry, the passage of the bill in this Assembly session is said to be crucial for the upcoming GHMC elections towards the end of the year.
The bill provides for 50 per cent reservation for women across general and backward classes, formal co-option of members from minority communities and one member from the transgender community, in a move that is expected to alter the political landscape of upcoming local elections.
Political observers told ThePrint rescinding the old GHMC Act would weaken municipal corporations’ autonomy.
“The bill gives the state government extensive powers over the regional corporations, including the authority to call for records, inspect operations, override local decisions, and even dissolve a corporation entirely. This is in direct violation of the Indian Constitution, which gave constitutional status and protection to urban local bodies (municipalities) in 1993 when it was amended,” said M. Srinivas, Convenor of the Urban Development Forum.
He was referring to the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992, which granted constitutional status to urban local bodies.
He added that Section 3(3) of the bill gives the state legislature the power to expand the Core Urban Region boundaries to include new areas.
Critics argue this allows the chief minister to unilaterally bring any new project, like the ‘Future City’, under this integrated governance umbrella to fast-track approvals and bypass local municipal hurdles.
The GHMC was officially split into three separate municipal bodies in February to improve local governance and manage rapid city growth.
The three new corporations formed were the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, covering central areas like Secunderabad, Charminar, and Khairatabad; Cyberabad Municipal Corporation (CMC), covering tech-hub zones like Serilingampally and Kukatpally; and Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation (MMC), covering eastern and northern zones like Malkajgiri and Uppal.
“If the state is to decide everything through the Apex Council, then it leaves the elected mayor almost powerless. In its current form, the bill disempowers city governance systems because all policies will be enforced as a covenant without letting the elected representatives at the municipal and ward level take any decisions,” Srinivas added.
RWAs raise concerns
But the strongest objections have come from the resident welfare associations (RWAs) and real estate associations, with the Real Estate Guild in Hyderabad pushing back against the proposed taxation method changes.
The release of the draft bill for public consultation triggered intense debate in Hyderabad.
Over 3,000 residents wrote to the government formally objecting to the proposed taxation method, saying that taxing homes based on market/guideline values, driven heavily by real estate speculation rather than actual rental yields, would place an unfair financial burden on property owners.
“These revised property rates are more exacting than the previous regime. It permits corporations to levy cess, service charges, capital development charges, and arrogates itself the authority to revise property taxes without any economic impact analysis. This is not just going to raise the standard of living in Hyderabad, but also levy unfair consumer liabilities,” said an Executive Member of the Federation of Gated Communities Cyberabad (FGCC), who did not wish to be named.
The FGCC has sent its suggestions to the government, one of which is fixing decades-old calculation anomalies where similar buildings in the same colony are unequally taxed. Instead, the body has suggested a fixed property tax over a five-year period, which could be revised subsequently based on a market value survey.
Other objections include penalising residents of RWAs for property developers defaulting on permissions.
The FGCC and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) have fiercely opposed the provision allowing municipal corporations to block or disconnect water, sewerage, and power to occupied apartments if the builder or developer failed to pay any dues owed to the government when applying for standard permissions.
But what further aggravated citizens was the draft’s provision that allows residents a mere 24 hours before their gated community or standalone apartment is seized after being classified as an unauthorised structure.
The FGCC executive quoted above called this “entirely unrealistic”, saying that RWAs that house more than 500 apartments and families require a minimum notice period of 30 days to respond or seek legal recourse.
Donthi Narasimha Reddy, head of Citizens for Public Transport, argued that the bill be withdrawn and redrafted to make ward committees mandatory, granting them explicit financial powers.
He also demanded the removal of clauses that allow the state to arbitrarily dissolve civic bodies. In his letter to the government and Jayesh Ranjan, Special Officer for all three municipal bodies, he spoke of a lack of transparency, diminished upward accountability, and the marginalisation of public participation.
“The word ‘government’ appears 474 times, with state authorities directly exercising administrative discretion 253 times. Instead of treating ward communities as vital governance institutions under Article 243S of the Constitution, the bill tucks them into the ‘elections schedule’,” he told ThePrint.
“It limits their responsibilities to minor civic hygiene and tax-facilitation roles, while giving them no say in local budgets or fund allocations,” he added.
CREDAI submitted a plea for easing capital outlays and pushing the government for structural relief to help ease the capital burden on developers.
Developers called for the scrapping or reduction of the 10 percent building-permit mortgage component to 5 percent, stating it is too high given the market slowdown.
They argued that the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) already guards consumer interests and they want the Non-Agricultural Land Assessment (NALA) conversion fees payments integrated into the new unified digital system for efficiency.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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