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Let's draw the blueprint for Hyderabad's next chapter. Together.
Knowledge Partner: Smart City Living Lab, IIIT‑H
Deadline for submissions: 22nd November
Have a practical solution for how Hyderabad moves? Choose one of five focus areas, compete for a ₹5 lakh* prize pool and present to decision-makers at the HYD Next Summit.
Knowledge Partner: Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)
Deadline for submissions: 30th November
Does your apartment or residential community harvest rainwater, reuse treated water or manage water responsibly? Showcase your practices for evaluation with IGBC and a chance to be featured by TOI.
01 The platform
HYD Next Summit 2026 focuses on mobility and water resilience, two systems critical to Hyderabad's growth, liveability and global competitiveness.
Stories, explainers and features across TOI print and digital.
Open calls for ideas and on-ground practices from across the city.
Screening, evaluation and expert interaction that sharpen promising ideas.
A stage where solutions meet the people who can act on them.
02 Legacy platform
HYD@25 established The Times of India as Hyderabad's most credible city convener, bringing together leaders, institutions, industry and citizens around the city's growth and identity.
HYD Next builds on that stature as an annual, forward-looking platform.
03 Why now
More than isolated civic issues, these are business-continuity, liveability and growth-readiness priorities for the city.
90lakh
Vehicles on Hyderabad's roads, one of India's highest vehicle densities.
TOI · Sep 2025
AI-led
Traffic management proposed by the Chief Minister to ease urban mobility pressures.
TOI · Jul 2026
1/ 3
Of Greater Hyderabad is highly or very highly flood-vulnerable, according to a TISS study.
TOI · Jan 2026
A projected 235 MGD shortfall by 2027: a critical water-security gap.
TOI · Feb 2026
Source: The Times of India coverage. Figures to be re-verified against original reports before publication.
01 Two tracks
In association with Smart City Living Lab, IIIT Hyderabad
Have a practical solution for how Hyderabad moves? Choose one of five focus areas, compete for a ₹5 lakh* prize pool and present to decision-makers at the HYD Next Summit.
Knowledge Partner – Water Resilience: IGBC
Does your apartment or residential community harvest rainwater, reuse treated water or manage water responsibly? Showcase your practices for evaluation with IGBC and a chance to be featured by TOI and recognised at the Summit.
Know more about each initiative
02 Mobility Ideathon
Hyderabad is growing rapidly, and its mobility systems need to keep pace. The challenge spans junction movement, emergency access, pedestrian safety, last-mile connectivity and how different road users share limited road space.
₹5 lakh* prize pool · Top 3 teams present to decision-makers at HYD Next Summit
*Terms and conditions apply.
03 Why take part
The competition is open to all. Teams of up to 4 can participate:
04 Problem statements
Teams may address any one of the five focus areas below. Solutions can be technology, design, engineering, traffic planning, behavioural or hybrid. The problem statements define the outcome to solve; they do not prescribe the solution type.
How might we redesign, reconfigure or better manage identified high-pressure junctions in Hyderabad to improve traffic flow, reduce delays and make movement more predictable?
Focus locations: Sarath City Mall, Kondapur; Nexus Mall, Kukatpally; Sattva Knowledge Park Junction, HITEC City; and Lakdikapul Metro Station Junction.
Why this matters: TOI has reported that motorists around Sarath City Mall have taken 15 minutes or more to cross very short stretches during peak periods.
Possible approaches: signal coordination or redesign, one-way systems, turn management, lane or junction reconfiguration, underpasses, U-turn redesign, access management, parking / curb changes, traffic-management measures and so on. Design-led solutions such as a one-way movement model around KBR Park or an underpass enabling a U-turn near My Home Avatar illustrate the breadth of approaches that may be considered.
How might we reduce time lost by ambulances and other emergency vehicles in congested urban corridors and improve predictability of access to hospitals?
Focus: high-RTA-volume and high-response-time locations, and routes where a few minutes can materially affect time-to-hospital.
| Location | RTA cases | Average response |
|---|---|---|
| Kukatpally | 83 | 9:01 |
| Gachibowli | 79 | 13:13 |
| Uppal | 68 | 9:35 |
| Ghatkesar | 58 | 15:14 |
| Shamshabad | 56 | 11:55 |
The state RTA response-time average according to EMRI is 10:23. These figures identify locations where teams can explore ways to make emergency movement faster and more predictable.
Possible approaches: dynamic green corridors, signal pre-emption, route or junction redesign, protected emergency movement, ambulance-to-control-room coordination, predictive routing, hospital-route coordination, emergency access planning or low-cost operational interventions.
How might we make walking and cycling safer and more predictable across Hyderabad, particularly around schools, transit stops, commercial areas and high-footfall corridors?
Why this matters: TOI reported in 2025 that footpaths were missing from more than 60% of Hyderabad, with only 36% of primary road corridors having adequate pavements.
Possible approaches: better crossing design, school-zone treatments, footpath continuity, accessibility improvements, cyclist infrastructure, visibility measures, risk mapping, pedestrian detection, junction redesign or other design and planning interventions. Solutions should consider people with disabilities, children, senior citizens and other vulnerable users.
How might we make the journey between homes, workplaces and public-transport nodes more seamless, affordable and reliable?
Why this matters: TOI has highlighted gaps between Metro, MMTS and bus services that leave commuters dependent on autos, cabs and bike taxis for short but essential links. More recently, the city introduced a common Metro–RTC pass, creating a new base for ideas that make transfers and first/last-mile journeys even easier.
Possible approaches: feeder-route redesign, shared mobility, better station access, workplace or campus mobility plans, multimodal journey planning, parking/pickup changes, route planning or technology-enabled demand matching. Solutions should demonstrate affordability, usability and scalability.
How might we better coordinate the many different users and trip types competing for Hyderabad’s road space?
Focus: utility vehicles, school buses, cars, garbage vehicles, deliveries and other road users; demand management, curb use, timing and rerouting.
Why this matters: TOI has reported that nearly 90 lakh vehicles across Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri generated about 1.3 crore traffic challans in 2025. It has also documented how roadside activity and parking can materially reduce usable carriageway on busy internal corridors.
Possible approaches: staggered timings, school-bus routing, commercial / utility-vehicle windows, dynamic routing, car-pooling, curb allocation, loading / unloading management, parking management, route optimisation or design changes that reduce peak-hour conflict. The solution should show how behaviour, logistics and infrastructure can work together.
Sources: TOI reporting on Sarath City Mall and KBR Park junction movement; pedestrian infrastructure; last-mile connectivity and Metro–RTC integration; traffic violations, parking and road-space management. EMRI / RTA data shared for Oct 2025–Sep 2026. Smart City Living Lab, IIIT Hyderabad, “Hyderabad Urban Mobility Hackathon” (2026).
05 The Ideathon journey
From idea application to the HYD Next Summit. Indicative dates
Applications open and initial ideas submitted.
Submit: a 1-page note explaining the problem you are addressing, your proposed solution and how you see it being implemented in Hyderabad, with your team profile.
Teams get shortlisted.
Shortlisted teams develop their solutions.
Submit: UI flows, architecture diagrams, design drawings or technical mock-ups; demo video where applicable; technical / implementation note; how it works in real-world conditions and could integrate with existing mobility or traffic-management arrangements.
10 teams get shortlisted.
Expert reviews, refinement and final evaluation with teams.
Submit: a final presentation covering the problem, solution, implementation approach, prototype / demonstration, impact, scalability, novelty and commercialisation potential.
Winners announced.
Top 3 teams give a lightning presentation of their solutions to the Hon’ble Chief Minister and senior government and mobility stakeholders.
Implementation note: HYD Next and the Knowledge Partner will help surface and refine promising solutions. Any pilot, deployment or implementation remains subject to feasibility, approvals and adoption by the relevant government authorities.
Submit your idea02 Water Resilience Challenge
As part of TOI HYD Next, The Times of India, with IGBC as Knowledge Partner, is inviting people across Hyderabad to showcase how their homes and communities are capturing, conserving, treating, reusing and managing water.
A citywide showcase of innovative and effective water-management practices across residential communities and households.
We’re looking for practices that work in the real world, from rainwater harvesting and reuse to efficient fixtures, water treatment, metering and community-led conservation. The best-performing entries will be recognised at the HYD Next Summit and showcased as examples other communities can learn from.
03 Why take part
Put the people behind your community’s water practices in the spotlight.
Winning communities will have the people behind the practices felicitated at the Summit alongside senior leaders and key stakeholders shaping Hyderabad’s future.
Selected people and their practices may be featured by The Times of India, giving their work a wider platform across the city.
Your experience could become a practical example for other homes and communities looking to manage water better.
04 Who can participate
The challenge is open to residential formats across Hyderabad.
All eligible gated villa communities.
Individual homes.
05 Evaluation
You don’t need to be a water expert. Tell us what you do. IGBC will evaluate the evidence.
Share your community details, water systems and practices.
Include photographs, consumption details, meter readings, STP/WTP reports, certifications and other evidence.
Entries are assessed using a 100-point water-performance framework.
Winning communities are recognised and felicitated at the HYD Next Summit.
The assessment looks at infrastructure, measured performance and responsible water management, not simply whether a system has been installed. Ready to showcase your community? Tell us what you’re doing with every drop.
Register your community06 The journey
A sustained campaign, not a one-day event. Both tracks run in parallel and converge on the HYD Next Summit stage.
11 Summit day
Proposed · subject to confirmation
Top 3 teams present to the Hon’ble Chief Minister and senior stakeholders
The future of urban mobility
Reimagining the urban water cycle
07 The ecosystem
HYD Next brings citizens, institutions, experts, civic stakeholders and industry together around Hyderabad's future.
Multiple touchpoints across the campaign, from launch visibility to the Summit stage.
Partnership enquiriesAwareness and brand visibility during campaign launch and idea collection.
Branded content and featured stories in TOI print and digital.
Stage presence, delegate engagement, felicitation and post-event amplification.
HYD Next 2026 · Move. Flow. Grow.
