It looks like GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu has his task cut out. The city is fast earning itself the sobriquet ‘crater Hyderabad’, thanks to incessant rains and lack of road repairs.
The GHMC Commissioner on Monday promised to undertake emergency repair works on main thoroughfares in a fortnight to give respite from the back-breaking rides on the rain-battered roads. After an emergency meeting with senior officials from the Traffic Police, Water Board, R&B Department and NHAI authorities, Mr. Babu said the officials would identify problematic areas immediately and prepare work estimates within 10 days.
He urged all the departments to give a written statement to the Water Board on roads that were damaged due to water leakage and sewerage.
Liability clause
He said that works executed during Conference of Parties (CoP) fall under the period of liability. “Contractors who executed works during CoP are bound to repair badly damaged roads under the liability period clause,” he pointed out. Of the 69 works taken up during CoP-11, 53 works were checked for quality and 37 works were in good condition while the remaining 16 works were found to be defective.
“Even to take up minor repairs, we need at least two dry days. So far, the GHMC area has received 35.5 centimetres of rainfall whereas the normal rainfall during this same period is 21.5 cm. This is 64 per cent excess, which has slowed down the repairs,” Mr. Babu reasoned.
In the review meeting, the GHMC engineers have charged restoration works taken up the water board and Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) were ‘sinking’ at several locations. The Commissioner requested the two departments to divert funds to GHMC, which will enable it to execute the restoration works quickly and efficiently.
As part of the works related to de-silting of culverts, municipal engineers will form dedicated teams for deep sewerage cleaning in all the zones. Superintendent engineers will have to furnish statement of the total water logging points in a week.
The Commissioner said cement concrete roads are a difficult proposition. “Due to heavy traffic, the traffic police cannot block an important stretch to allow us construct a CC road. The city has a problem of water stagnations due to which the BT roads are getting damaged,” he added.
