As one leaves Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) and takes the Outer Ring Road (ORR) towards Gachibowli, the change in the city is almost gradual enough to miss. For a while, there is open land with greenery on either side. Then the buildings begin to appear. A tower here, another in a distance, and soon entire clusters of high-rises come into view. By the time one reaches the western corridor, the skyline has changed completely with glass towers, office blocks, apartment complexes and construction sites stretching across what, not too long ago, was the edge of the city.
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It is a view that would have been difficult to imagine five decades ago. Hyderabad was once a compact city, with much of its activity concentrated around its older neighbourhoods and established commercial centres. Today, the city has spread far beyond that core. New residential and employment centres have emerged in the west, south and north, while older neighbourhoods have been absorbed into a much larger metropolitan area.
The transformation has been driven by more than real estate. Jobs, migration, infrastructure, rising incomes and changing family structures have all played a part. But few things show the scale of the change as clearly as the land on which the new Hyderabad has been built.
Five decades, two landmarks, one evolving city
For 52-year-old Anish Rao, a government employee who grew up in Yousufguda, the difference is personal. “I still remember that when I was a child, Yousufguda was fairly developed because of its proximity to Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills. But crossing beyond Madhapur at night was considered scary because there was nothing there,” he said.
When Hyderabad began moving west
Just like how Rome wasn’t built in a day, Hyderabad’s expansion did not happen overnight. Residential colonies and industrial areas gradually pushed the city beyond its older limits during the 1980s and 1990s. Kukatpally, Balanagar and Jeedimetla became increasingly connected to the city’s economy. Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills developed into prominent residential areas, while Madhapur was still largely identified with open land and scattered development.
Then the technology industry changed the direction of the city. The inauguration of HITEC City at Madhapur in 1998 became a turning point. As technology companies began setting up offices, the western corridor acquired a new economic importance. Employment was followed by housing, and housing was followed by everything else needed to support a growing population: schools, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, malls and entertainment spaces.
Madhapur expanded towards Kondapur and Gachibowli. Raidurg emerged as a major office district. The Financial District brought another concentration of commercial development. More recently, Kokapet and Neopolis have become symbols of the next phase of Hyderabad’s western expansion. “Once the jobs started moving west, housing followed,” said Jaideep Reddy, president of CREDAI Hyderabad.
For many migrants, however, the attraction has been more straightforward. “People came here because there were jobs. Once they came, they needed houses, schools and everything else. That is how entire areas started developing. You could see one building coming up and then suddenly an entire colony around it,” said Krishna Chaitanya, a long-time resident of the western suburbs.
The western corridor’s growth changed the value of land itself. Places that had once been agricultural or sparsely developed began attracting developers and investors. Roads and infrastructure made previously distant parcels more accessible, while the proximity of employment centres pushed demand for both homes and commercial space.
From five floors to 50
Hyderabad has not only spread outward. It has also grown upwards. Independent houses and low-rise buildings once dominated much of the city’s residential landscape. Apartments became increasingly common as land prices rose and more people moved into the city. Gated communities followed, offering not just homes but a range of amenities within large residential developments.
Today, towers of 40 and 50 floors are increasingly visible in the newer parts of the city, with even taller structures shaping the emerging skyline. For Nagender Reddy, a private-sector employee, one of the clearest signs of the real-estate boom is something that appears on almost every major road, billboards. The 158-km Outer Ring Road (ORR) connected several emerging areas around Hyderabad and made it easier to travel between different parts of the metropolitan region. The opening of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad in 2008 strengthened the southern corridor, while Metro rail, which began operations in 2017, added a mass-transit network to a city increasingly defined by long-distance commuting.
For commuters, the same expansion has also meant longer journeys. “Earlier, going from one part of Hyderabad to another was not such a big decision. Now you have to see the traffic before deciding where to go,” said Saurav, a daily commuter.
The modern Hyderabad therefore presents a contradiction. It is easier to connect distant parts of the city than before, but the city itself is also much farther apart. The administrative boundaries of Hyderabad have expanded along with the physical city. In 2007, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was created by merging the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) with 12 surrounding municipalities. The municipal area expanded from about 175 sq. km to roughly 650 sq. km. By then, the city had already begun developing multiple centres rather than growing exclusively around its historic core.
The western corridor became a major employment and real-estate hub. Kukatpally and surrounding areas developed their own residential and commercial ecosystems. Secunderabad retained its distinct identity while becoming part of a much larger urban continuum. The airport corridor and southern parts of the metropolitan region emerged as another development frontier.
For Hyderabadis who have lived through the transformation, the bigger change is that there is no longer one obvious centre to the city. There are several. There is the old Hyderabad around the Charminar and its historic markets. There is the traditional commercial city around Abids, Koti and Nampally. There is the residential Hyderabad of Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills. There is the technology and corporate city of Madhapur, Gachibowli and the Financial District. And there is the newer Hyderabad emerging around Kokapet, Neopolis, the airport corridor and beyond.
(siddharth.kumar@thehindu.co.in)
Published – September 04, 2026 05:30 am IST
