Hyderabad: Till date the GHMC has only taken action against two companies — in 2012 against CPD-CL and in 2014 against Reliance Jio — for damaging the city’s roads.
No other company has been fined or have had their permission cancelled. A warning is the only thing the officials resort to as deterrence. The corporation is concerned only about revenue and not the city’s roads, complain taxpayers.
Though recently the GHMC decided to accord permission only during certain months in a year, works that were granted permission earlier are still continuing. GHMC officials, meanwhile, say that once permission is granted, it is the party’s responsibility to restore the road.
Agreeing with the GHMC, HMWS&SB’s operation and maintenance head, Mr Rameshwar Rao said, “The board has a provision for roads responsibility. It is entirely the agency’s responsibility to re-carpet the road once the digging work is done. Close to 99 per cent of projects is given to contractors, who must relay the stretch and hand it over in its original condition.”
Caught between the GHMC and other departments is the Hyderabad Traffic team. Mr Jitender, additional commissioner of traffic, said, “Laying of cables, water pipelines and drainage pipes are all necessary for the society. But delay in re-carpeting directly hampers the flow of traffic. Once the road is dug, contractors do not bother to repair it. Even on the Tank Bund, re-carpeting was done much later, leading to traffic chaos… It is the responsibility of civil authorities to question them.”
The GHMC, meanwhile, says that no recent permissions have been granted and the ongoing digging works are earlier approvals artments concerned and initiate action,” said an official at the GHMC engineering wing.
In December 2014, GHMC commissioner and special officer Somesh Kumar had ordered all departments to complete digging works; however mainly the Water and Sewerage Board projects have been delayed.
Other stretches, which have been dug and require repairs are at Shivam Road, the road leading to the Tolichowki flyover up to Shaikpet, Chirec School road at Kondapur, the Chilkalguda stretch, Musheerabad main road, Kavadiguda main road etc.
Mr N. Chandrasekhar said, "Road No. 3 in New Nagole Colony opposite MAA Residency Apartments was dug up to repair drainage lines five months ago. But once the work was done, the road was left unattended with waste material and other debris lying around. About 15 days ago, another round of digging took place to repair the drainage lines close to the same spot. Now a big heap of stones and soil on the middle of the road has been creating serious problems for motorists."
