Potholes still dot roads in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Over 1,000 km of BT roads and 400 km white-topped roads were promised to be laid before October 2015 by the Chief Minister. However, other than re-carpeting of the Begumpet flyover, SD Road and bits and pieces here and there, no new roads have been laid till date. Immediate repairs are needed at Narayanguda, Banjara Hills Road no. 10, the parallel routes leading to Madhapur, Kukatpally and more in Cyberabad.

Also, all new colonies, especially in the East Zone (Uppal, LB Nagar and Malakpet) need new roads. Most of the  main roads falling along the Metro route are damaged. It costs the GHMC Rs 10 crore to lay and maintain one km of road (of good quality).

Meanwhile, in many areas roads are still being dug, especially by the Water Board, which has further delayed in taking up the job of relaying the roads. GHMC says about 800 works are in tender process. Sharath Kumar Goud of Quthbullapur said, “We do not have proper roads, especially near Chinthal Ganesh Nagar, Ramalayam temple. The roads were not laid owing to drainage works. However those works were completed in 2014 itself, but no roads have been laid yet.”

Lekshmy P.V. of Alwal said, “I have been living in Lakshmi Enclave, Jonnabanda, Old Alwal for the past 13 years. Not even once have the government authorities bothered to lay the road in spite of our repeated requests. The neighboring areas that came up very recently have cement roads laid by GHMC. Please let us know on what basis roads are being laid at selected areas and the ones where residents pay tax regularly are being ignored.”

Ironically, the Chief Minister’s ward, Parsigutta, too does not have proper connectivity. Except for a small BT stretch ahead of the Raghav Function Hall and a mounted structure in front of the Parsigutta Nala, nothing has been done yet. There are no concrete roads in this ward.  Issues like narrow roads, steep curves, slope of the roads, blind corners, improper illumination, improper traffic junctions (without signals), and lack of speed limit signs are some of the other infrastructural issues not being addressed, especially on main roads. The wards falling in the 12 merged municipalities need new roads, there is no inner connectivity in Gachibowli, Manikonda, Kondapur, Nizampet and Miyapur despite the prolific real estate activities.

GHMC commissioner Dr B. Janardhan Reddy said, “There are about 1,000 km of roads in the GHMC limits where BT roads, re-carpeting have been taken up. About 800 works are in the tender process out of which most have been sanctioned.”

4 firms bid for hi-tech flyovers

The multi-grade separator project has received a poor response for the second time as only four companies have submitted bids. The hurdles for the project are land acquisition — since all the 18 flyovers are planned in urban areas — and traffic constraints. Also, several questions have been raised on the rate of progress of the project.

A GHMC senior officer from the engineering wing said, “GHMC has to finalise the tenders; for the second time only four parties have shown interest. The corporation had given wide publicity to the project and a 40-day tender notice period, which is more than required. GHMC had also conducted a pre-bid wherein 70-80 companies participated. However, only four have submitted quotations. The main issue is that the structures have been planned in 100 per cent urban and densely populated areas; land acquisition is the prime reason and such big projects will definitely cause massive traffic constrains. The funds payable by the state is proportionate to the rate of progress.”

Following the CM’s nod, GHMC had called for tenders  in August in Deferred Annuity Paym-ent Mode for construction of 18 multi-level flyovers, grade separators and junctions. It had, however, later cancelled it and floated fresh tenders in package-wise, on EPC mode to which they got responses from four companies.

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