Serilingampally

Serilingampally is a municipal town in Andhra Pradesh. The municipality specifically belongs to the district of Rangareddi, which encircles the state’s capital city of Hyderabad. Due to this, Serilingampally is closely connected to the capital city and is, in fact, a part of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the urban planning agency that oversees the development of Hyderabad. The absorption of the municipality to the agency happened in 2007. This makes Serilingampally one of the more progressive municipalities in the area, especially since the GHMC sometimes implements its plans and developments on test towns before putting it on the main capital itself. Serilingampally is now part of the west zone of the GHMC.

According to the Indian census taken in 2001, the municipality’s demographics showed a total population of 150,525 people. This is broken down into an equal male and female constituent, right at 50%.

The municipality was also chosen as a pilot to explore the potential and constraints of agriculture in Hyderabad. The project was started in the hopes of studying the feasibility of cultivating a thriving agricultural base in Hyderabad, which has long been a city centered on commerce, trade and, in recent years, information technology development. Why Serilingampally is chosen is, of course, understandable – it is one of the fastest growing zones of Hyderabad. The fact that the municipality’s authorities have provided such a strong support for the town also helped, as this shows that the municipality is primed and ready to take on any test in the name of economic progress and development. Serilingampally is also rapidly becoming urbanized, with demand of perishable products rising. On the flip side, the high proportion of people that are BPL (below poverty line), retained areas of agriculture production, and the state government’s existing programs for urban poor support have been taken into account in making Serilingampally a good choice for the pilot program.

Economy-wise, Serilingampally was primarily an agricultural town. It already had a reasonable level of agricultural practices, including the farming of crops such as paddy rice, maize, and leafy vegetables. In recent years, however, urbanization has caused the development and reduction of agricultural land. There has been a boom in housing, with scores of colonies springing up, thanks in part to the setting up of several IT companies in its jurisdiction. This, coupled with increasing high land values, had forced the municipality to bring in agricultural produce from neighboring areas. In general, 80% of the municipality’s vegetable supply comes from outside. In response to this, the Resource Center on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF-CFF) collaborated with low-income communities to develop household gardens and kitchens as well as a residential school to support the education of poor students.

Also, in a program designed to develop the municipality’s urbanization further, the local government has taken up the work of covering Serilingampally with an underground sewerage system. It is expected that by 2010, every nook and corner of the municipality area will have a fully functioning sewerage line.