Agencies executing 2BHK houses threaten to stall work across Hyderabad
Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad municipal corporation (GHMC) has been asking for Rs 490 crore immediately to continue the construction of 2BHK houses, apart from another Rs 1500 crore by first week of November to deliver the 85,000 2BHK houses prior to the election. The agencies have warned the corporation that work will be stalled if dues were not cleared.
The government has allocated a total of Rs 9,700 crore for the construction of these houses. The government will construct one lakh houses, with about 4000 houses each in 24 constituencies of Hyderabad. As construction work at most sites is at the finishing stage, government asked officials to also speed up the development of infrastructure facilities, including water supply, electricity, and other amenities.
According to corporation officials, due to the delay in funds from the housing department, the construction of 2BHK has been already moving at a snail's pace. For five years now, the housing department has cleared only Rs 6,196.57 crore from the total of Rs 9,714.59 crore. The corporation has to immediately clear Rs 490 crore to complete the final touches on 26, 420 dwelling units by December.
With Rs 3,518.02 crore bills piled up, the corporation has set an immediate target to complete 23,076 2BHK houses by August, 25,093 houses by September, 11,026 houses by March next year. However, due to delay of funds, the targets were not achieved and the recent rains have complicated things even further.
Overall, the civic body set a target to complete 85,615 houses by December. However, corporation authorities said that these were only deadlines on paper and if there was any delay in sanctioning of funds, the project would be dragged for another year.
Official sources also said that by the first week of November, the corporation needs about Rs 1900 crore, including the infrastructure cost, to pay the Hyderabad metropolitan water supply and sewerage board (HMWSSB), electricity department, Telangana state industrial infrastructure corporation (TSIICP) and others. They said that the executing agencies threatened to stall work if the payments were not made on time.
A senior GHMC official, requesting anonymity, told Deccan Chronicle that the corporation could only complete about 26,000 houses by December with complete infrastructure. He pointed out that by December, the construction of double bedroom houses would not be completed and their distribution will consume a few months after identifying beneficiaries, which would most probably be post-GHMC polls. "We have set deadlines and if there is any delay, the project would once come to a grinding halt and it would be further dragged till the legislative assembly polls,” he added.
Meanwhile, officials informed minister, K. T. Rama Rao, that a total of 75,000 2BHK dignity houses and 10 thousand dignity houses under JNNURM and Vambay will be ready by the end of December. He asked officials to identify the beneficiaries who handed over the land for the construction of 2BHK dignity houses and update their details at the earliest.
