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Hyderabad: Technical glitch delays bids for road repair works

A GHMC official said that earlier work was divided among several engineers in a particular circle and zone.

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation bidding for annual road maintenance has been postponed for a week due to technical reasons. Authorities claimed that unlike the regular tender process, zone wise bids were floated, which requires a specified proforma which holds one particular executive engineer accountable among the many present in the zone.

A GHMC official said that earlier work was divided among several engineers in a particular circle and zone. But now the corporation has invited zone wise bids, but forgot to mention it when floating the tenders. Corrections in the proforma will be made and bids will be opened on November 15. Officials said that due to this technical reason, the tender finalisation will be extended for a week and work will start in the second week of December. (A proforma is an invoice issued before an order is placed giving all the details and the cost.)

A total of 401 stretches of road covering 709.5 km will be handed over for private maintenance, with a contract value of `1,827 crore for five years. This works out to roughly `800 crore more than what GHMC would spend on maintenance.

The companies/contractors winning the bid under EPC mode will be given several other responsibilities related to road health apart from pothole filling and rectification of bad patches. They include de-silting of storm water drains and monsoon emergency monitoring including water logging, debris removal from footpaths, central median and carriageway, development of road infrastructure including footpaths, drains, lane marking and road studs, signage boards, kerb painting, and beautification including maintenance of greenery.

Raising the catch pits and manhole covers to road height, replacement of the covers, minor repairs to storm water drains and underground drainage system will also be henceforth the agency’s duty.

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