On the road leading to Hyderabad’s gleaming IT corridor near IKEA in Gachibowli, the skyline abruptly changes. Glass office towers and premium commercial complexes give way to mountains of debris. Piles of broken concrete, soil and construction waste now rise to the height of six- to seven-storey buildings, forming what has easily become one of the city’s largest urban dumping crises.
For thousands who pass through the stretch every day, the heaps have become part of the landscape. But officials now estimate that nearly 15 lakh tonnes of construction and demolition (C&D) waste may have accumulated in the area over the years, so much that even under ideal conditions, clearing it could take more than a year.
