Bumpy rides ahead as GHMC stops road work

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to stop all road repair works under the periodical preventive maintenance (PPM) scheme after completing 22 works worth Rs 110 crore out of the 52 that were initially planned.

Termed as PPM, the work involves milling of the existing BT road, re-profiling and re-laying it. This is ideally done once in five years. However, all that GHMC has been able to do was mere patchwork at several stretches, which results in uneven bitumen pads in the middle of the road leading to bumpy rides. The civic body has been carrying out PPM on the roads which were laid a year agom some of which started before the GHMC elections in 2015.

The civic body has kept the other works, valued at Rs 130 crore, pending. An official said the corporation will not allow contractors to go ahead with the work after the completion of the extended deadline of six months.

According to highly placed sources in the corporation, the PPM works have been delayed because funds have not been released for six months.

The official said the contract for the bitumen topping of roads will be closed immediately. The corporation has completed 80 per cent of the work so commuters will not be affected, he said.

However, with non-completion of PPM works and implementation of the ban on digging from June 1 to October 31, commuters will have to face bumpy rides all through the ensuing monsoon.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has dug up 350 km of roads to lay pipelines. It has failed to restore 50 km of the dug up portion in Mehdipatnam, Abids and Moazzamjahi Market. GHMC officials said that despite several reminders, the HMWSSB has not restored the roads which will certainly cause severe inconvenience to commuters during the monsoons.

Out of 52 Bitumen topping works under PPM, the corporation has only managed to clear bills amounting to Rs 110 crore for 22 works.

Sources said the corporation could not take up the works at two stretches due to site disputes.

Blaming Hyderabad Road Development Corporation (HRDCL), which was created as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to fund the road repair work, the sources claimed that the delay in payments has resulted not only in delaying the work but has forced the corporation to face criticism from commuters.

Contrary to this, the corporation official came made the surprise announcement that they have almost completed the PPM works except footpaths.

A senior GHMC official said that the corporation has taken up road repair work worth 750 lane kilometres and till date they have completed about 600 lane kilometres in 15 months. He said that the remaining works will be not taken up due to completion of extended deadline.

“Even if road repair work was undertaken now it would be washed off within a week after it was laid. The corporation cannot take up pending roads repairs works under PPM after monsoon since the texture of BT will vary,” the official said.

When asked about the bumpy rides due to civic apathy, the corporation official said that the civic body alone is not to blame since the payments were not made on time. He said the water board and other city departments were not co-operating with the GHMC to restore the road after digging.

The official said that commuters will have nightmares this monsoon due to non-cooperation from the other city departments. The official said that since the road digging ban would be in place from May 31 to October 31 it could avoid further damage and civic body will not issue any permission for road cutting in any case.