Private firms have big plans to dig up roads

 

Hyderabad: The rains have subsided, but traffic problems continue to plague the city as many agencies are digging up roads. Most of the road digging is carried out by private telecom companies and government agencies like the Water Board and the APCPDCL. 

 

Police says that too many permissions for road cuttings have worsened traffic conditions in the city. 

 

Private telecom players like Reliance have obtained road cutting permissions from the GHMC and police for nearly 300 kilometres in the city. They have also applied for permission to dig another 1,400 km of roads in the city. Airtel has applied for permissions to dig up 550 km

. 

 

The Greater Municipal Hyderabad Corporation says that it has not accorded permissions for the 1,950 km of digging planned by both the companies. 

 

GHMC engineer-in-chief R. Dhan Singh said, “We had received requests for permissions, but they haven’t got back to us again. Other government department works are not as extensive.” 

 

Currently, Reliance is working on 226 km of road cutting works. Several government departments have also been given road cutting permissions at several locations. APTransco, water Board, CPDCL are all carrying out road digging. Most of these locations have turned into traffic choke points. 

 

“We have had a dry spell now after a prolonged wet spell, so everyone wants to get their work done,” a senior GHMC official said. Meanwhile, the police is finding it difficult to manage traffic with hundreds of simultaneous works on city roads. 

 

“Managing traffic has become very difficult. If there is one small stretch of work, traffic on the entire road gets jammed,” a senior traffic police official said.