Citizens’ collective demands answers on Musi development, seeks review of project

Funding from the Asian Development Bank for the Musi Riverfront Development project is not yet finalised, and the multilateral development agency is still to give its nod for the project.

In a reply received by the Musi Jan Andolan to a query on the flagship project of the Telangana State government, the ADB representatives said that the Musi Riverfront Development project was posed by the Government of India, for financing, but it was ‘not yet listed on the ADB website’.

Responding to the concerns raised by the civil society collective, the bank assured that the issues would be examined during the due diligence process, besides redirecting them to the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation or any appropriate authority in the Telangana government.

Revealing the details through a media conference on Friday, the representatives of the MJA sought to draw attention of the government, media and citizens to the serious concerns around the project, including the impact on ecology, and communities living along the river belt, while seeking review of the whole project.

Speakers at the conference, including Jeevan Kumar and Syed Bilal from Human Rights Forum, K.Sajaya from Women and Transgenders JAC, Meera Sanghamitra from National Alliance of People’s Movements, and Varghese Thekanath from CHATRI, pointed out that the government has not yet indicated the exact public purpose of the project, whether it is cleaning, beautifying, rejuvenating or commercialising the Musi river and its banks.

There have not been any democratic discussions and consultations with the affected communities and civil society, they said, and demanded that the State government immediately clarify as to why and on what basis were 400 poor families evicted from three slums in Chaderghat and Malakpet without following due procedures.

There is no clarity on the Detailed Project Report, as the government had admitted as recently as on October, 2025, that DPR was not available. Without a DPR in place, how could the government of Telangana transfer institutional and government lands to the extent of 734 acres along Easa river to the MRDCL, a statement from MJA questioned, and wondered what was the basis for the pre-feasibility report.

The government should also reveal the action taken to control and monitor the pollution caused by industries, in the river for decades. Alleging that the project forcibly displaced people from their homes and livelihoods, to promote real estate and profiteering tourism, while falsely projecting this as a ‘public purpose’ project, the MJA declared that a democratic on-ground legal struggle will be waged if the government stubbornly goes ahead without paying attention to the concerns.