No takers for GHMC\'s nala development plan

Hyderabad: The Strategic Nala Development Plan (SNDP), formed exclusively to deal with urban flooding, has not moved an inch, a revelation that has taken not only Greater Hyderabad Municipal authorities but even the chief secretary Somesh Kumar by surprise.

It came to light during a recent review meeting they had with regard to the plan’s progress, that the detailed project report (DPR) prepared by SNDP officials was unrealistic and no bidder evinced an interest in taking up the project. Major tenders were invited for over a year.

Despite not making any progress, SNDP officials utilised about Rs 5 crore of public money towards salaries and other perks. Furious over the attitude of the officials, the state government has now fixed a deadline for finalising tenders. It wants completion of most of the nala widening works prior to monsoon.

GHMC had planned to take up SNDP works at an estimated cost of Rs 858 crore. The works include widening and improvement of nalas and removal of encroachments.

SNDP was initiated over a year ago, after floods devastated Hyderabad in October, 2020. Tenders were called for the project thrice but there was no response from contractors. The response was lukewarm because of the unrealistic proposals and for ignoring key factors like shifting of utilities and acquisition of land.

On their part, SNDP authorities have been inviting tenders for over a year which neither provided any solution to urban flooding nor gave scope for taking up works.

Ironically, SNDP officials even submitted false reports to Municipal Administration and Urban Development minister KT Rama Rao, who reviewed the progress of the project twice.

Irked by the lethargic approach of officials, the minister instructed the chief secretary to intervene and monitor the progress of the project. He also asked him to review the project on a weekly basis and take officials to task if the project does not progress according to plan. Since the government has already chipped in money and has decided to give special funds for implementing the programme, any further delay could have serious repercussions.

When investigated further, an outsourcing chief engineer with two superintendent engineers, four executive engineers, 11 deputy executive engineers and 25 assistant executive engineers had spent Rs five crore to only come up with unrealistic proposals. This resulted in many areas in the city getting submerged thrice this year. The authorities have also spent another Rs six crore towards studies, on consultants and for preparing DPRs.

A top official from the State government said that SNDP authorities were asked to prepare flawless DPRs first and only then invite tenders to execute the project. He said that officials were asked to fast-track works so that urban flooding issues could be dealt with more efficiently next monsoon.

He informed that the SNDP officials will now coordinate with zonal commissioners and GHMC chief engineer to execute the project. The official said a deadline of four months was given to the officials to at least provide a solution for major nala bottlenecks, which would be reviewed in the weekly meeting on Tuesday.