27 Municipalities Merged into GHMC, Hyderabad Enters Mega City Phase

As Hyderabad continues to scale new heights as a metropolitan city, its urban governance framework is undergoing a major transformation aimed at staying closer to citizens and strengthening administrative presence on the ground. In this direction, the state government has undertaken a landmark reorganisation of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), reinforcing a people-centric and decentralised system of governance.

The reorganisation follows the merger of 27 Urban Local Bodies into GHMC , significantly expanding the city’s civic jurisdiction from 650 square kilometres to 2,053 square kilometres. With this expansion, GHMC is now responsible for delivering civic services to a population of over 1.34 crore, placing it among the largest municipal corporations in the country. Officials said the move is intended to bring uniform civic administration to fast-growing urban and peri-urban areas that were earlier governed by multiple local bodies.

To effectively manage the expanded scale, the government has restructured GHMC’s administrative setup. The number of wards has been increased from 150 to 300, while administrative zones have been doubled from six to twelve and circles from 30 to 60. New zones have been created in Uppal, Quthbullapur, Malkajgiri, Shamshabad, Golconda and Rajendranagar, with the objective of reinforcing decentralised governance, enhancing field-level supervision and ensuring that civic services are delivered closer to citizens across the city.

Officials said the expanded zonal and circle structure is expected to improve grievance redressal, speed up decision-making and ensure closer monitoring of services such as sanitation, road maintenance, drainage and street lighting. The changes are also aimed at accelerating development works and addressing long-standing infrastructure gaps between the core city and newly added peripheral areas.

As part of the move towards a unified administrative framework for the Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR), the GHMC Commissioner on Friday conducted an initial coordination meeting with all newly appointed zonal commissioners. The meeting focused on ensuring a smooth administrative transition, setting unified priorities and establishing coordinated action plans for faster service delivery and balanced urban growth across the expanded city limits.

According to officials, the review emphasised the importance of clear accountability and strong on-ground leadership at the zonal level. This approach, they said, would lead to simpler processes, quicker decisions and accelerated development, reinforcing Hyderabad’s journey towards sustainable, inclusive and future-ready urban governance.