GHMC wakes up day before onset of rains

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation sat back and played flute throughout May that should have been time to get the city set for the approaching monsoon months. Then, it came up with a warning against road-digging on Tuesday, May 30, just before the onset of the season on June 1.

GHMC stated, “Contractors who continue to dig roads after June 1 will face criminal charges. All roads dug by various agencies, be it government or private, except for the Metro sewerage and water board, will have to re-lay the road before June 1. No new road-cutting will be permitted from June 1. Anyone found digging roads must report it to the corporation. One can also report to us on the roads that need to be re-laid, said GHMC commissioner Dr. B. Janardhan Reddy.

During monsoon, city roads turn death traps. Last year, broken roads had claimed three lives during the rainy season. Potholes, badly designed speed breakers, under-repair and under-construction roads not only cause inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians but also kill people.

Past records show that whatever goes wrong, GHMC officials are not held accountable. No case or criminal action has been initiated against officials over their failures in road maintenance. A majority of the fatal accidents happen when motorists/pedestrians try to negotiate with potholes. When the ditches are filled with rainfall, it dodges the attention of the people. Pedestrians/two-wheel riders skid and fall. The lethality of the accident depends on the speed at which they travel.

As of now, a majority of the city roads, especially internal roads, remain cut open for various works. With GHMC coming up with a warning just a day or two before the onset of the monsoon, contractors are throwing their hands up in desperation, and asking how they could complete the works in a tearing hurry. If they do a quick work, they point out, it would be a shoddy work that will not withstand the monsoon flood fury.

Mr A. G. Srinivas from Premvijay Nagar Colony wrote to the DC, saying, “The road between Uppalamma temple (Tirumala Gardens) to BJR Colony was dug more than six times to lay underground drainage pipes, water pipes, or carry out Reliance works. No re-carpeting has been done. The entire stretch of road had become uneven and full of mud and dust.”

While this is one example of a bad stretch, in a majority of the divisions, residents are suffering from dust emissions from the road and work sites due to their closeness to dug up, unattended and unfinished roads.

An official of the GHMC engineering department said, “For every road- digging work, a deadline was set. The contractor must re-lay a new road within the stipulated timeframe. The corporation has been warning contractors on road restoration. The deadline of June 1 is not new to them. Further, anyone found digging roads after June 1 will face criminal charges. GHMC has not given any new permission.”

The exemption is for the road-laying works carried out by the HMWSSB. Out of the 1,100km of roads dug up, the Metro board has laid and restored only 800km length of roads.