Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials claimed that a few recommendations made by JNTU experts would violate Indian Roads Congress (IRC) guidelines. They said the material proposed to construct the central median stormwater would not be cost effective and there were few agencies which were manufacturing them. However, corporation officials said that a final call on the suggestions would be taken after discussions with retired and chief engineers in the state to chalk out the possibilities of implementing them.
The civic body had asked JNTU experts to conduct a comprehensive study and provide a permanent solution to save the city from urban flooding and put an end to water logging. The outcome of the study proposed an additional 450 km of urban flood stormwater drain in the central median, 2,70,350 rainwater harvesting structures by households under social responsibility, 17,767 rainwater harvesting structures on government lands and 636 water tanks to be constructed under Build–operate–transfer (BOT). The initial indicative cost of stormwater drains was about Rs 400 crore which excluded cost of reverse cambering the roads, land acquisition and rainwater harvesting structures which may cost around Rs 2,000 crore.
A senior GHMC official said that the only radical recommendation by JNTU had been to lay reverse camber roads, which would allow the water to flow into the drain constructed at the central median. However, the official said that laying of reverse camber would violate IRC guidelines. He said that the recommendation given by the JNTU experts were technically good at the theory level but to adapt them on the ground would be a challenging job since it involved land acquisition and huge funds.
The GHMC official said that a series of meetings would be conducted with engineering experts and retired chief engineers for suggestions.
He said a final draft would be sent to the state government to take a final call. The official also made it clear that the budget proposals prepared by JNTU experts were only rough estimates and once holistic estimates were prepared, it might cost about Rs 4,000 crore.
