The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the traffic police and other related departments are all set to smoothly facilitate the immersion of about 75,000 idols of Lord Ganesh, adding another 15 immersion spots, said Mayor B. Rammohan.
Following a review meeting with personnel of the GHMC’s engineering wing, he said immersion-related works were going on at different parts of Greater Hyderabad and would be completed well in time, at least a couple of days before the final immersion day on September 5. He said special care was being taken in formation of ‘baby ponds’ like the ones in Bengaluru to ensure environment-friendly immersion.
According to a press release, he said unlike the ‘neglect’ by previous Governments, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi had released ₹ 95 crore for works on developing, de-silting 63 small, medium and the bigger lakes in the GHMC’s jurisdiction, of a total of 185. In 82 of them, clearance of water hyacinth was on too, he said.
Road works progressing
The GHMC on Wednesday announced that till August 22, a total of 26,101 potholes were filled, what with special teams being deputed for the purpose.
The heavy rains between July 17 and 19 had left roads in 587 locations in a bad shape and ₹ 22.74 crore was spent on repairs.
Work to fill up about 200 identified locations where water stagnated were taken up and work on 91 stretches of road was completed at a cost of ₹ 9.76 crore, a press release said.
Different agencies including voluntary organisations in Greater Hyderabad had already planted slightly over 50 lakh saplings and things were well on course to achieve a target of one crore by September 20 in GHMC limits, said a press release.
Huge success
Statistics include 48.60 lakh saplings that were distributed free to residents, apart from which 68,000 were planted as replacements to saplings that had withered in the past. Other figures include 38,000 open spaces where saplings were planted, 22,000 avenue plantation works, 12,000 ‘green curtains’, 4,800 ‘greenways’ and 12,000 saplings close to lakes.
The release claimed that the success rate of saplings planted last year was a whopping 90 per cent, while 78 per cent of them were ‘geo-tagged’, adding that there was a perceptible increase in the ‘green cover’.
