Hyderabad: Election duty has paralysed footpath works across the city. Besides delay in footpath works, the encroachments which were removed earlier have been making a comeback.
The corporation had proposed to construct 310 km footpaths at an estimated cost of Rs 87.71 crore.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had successfully removed more than 12,000 footpath encroachments, but they have been making a comeback at several areas including Malakpet, Secunderabad, Habsiguda, Tarnaka, Panjagutta, SR Nagar, Kukatpally, and several other areas in the city.
The footpath encroachments vary from street vendors to multinational companies. Though the civic body had warned the violators of stern action, they had been encroaching at their will as the corporation was focussed on election duty.
This apart, the GHMC’s proposal to construct 309.76 km-footpaths has come to a grinding halt at several locations even after GHMC commissioner M. Dana Kishore’s instructions.
As per the proposal, the civic body was to construct 952 metres of footpath on cement concrete white topping roads at a cost of Rs 91.6 crore at Uppal, Santosh Nagar, Falaknuma, Jubilee Hills, Yousufguda, Quthbullapur, Secunderabad, Begumpet and complete them by October 31 and 70,970 metres footpath on BT roads in Uppal, Malakpet, Santosh Nagar, Chandrayangutta, Charminar, Falaknuma, Rajendranagar circles and complete them by October 15.
However, the corporation has not even managed to complete 10 per cent of the footpath works in any of the circles.
A senior GHMC official commenting on footpath encroachments said that the corporation, despite levying penalties would seize the properties which had re-encroached the footpaths.
Explaining about the temporary encroachments by the street vendors, the official said that the problem could be resolved only after earmarking the vending zones.
When asked about new footpaths, the official said that the entire corporation had been paralysed and staff had been deployed on election duty.
