Conceding to the long pending demand of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the Telangana government has handed over the control of 240.87 km road stretches of Roads & Buildings (R&B) Department to the premier civic body.
The GHMC has been seeking these road stretches to ensure proper and uniform maintenance of city road networks, particularly during the monsoon.
Following the decision taken at a recent meeting on ‘Strategic Road Development Programme for Hyderabad’, the government has issued orders shifting the control of the R&B road network other than National Highway stretches that fall in the GHMC limits. The 240.87 km being handed over to the GHMC include 32.8 km of State highways and 208.07 km of major district roads.
The orders issued by the Transport, Roads & Buildings Department cited the meeting held by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, on the issue and said the control of these roads would be shifted to the GHMC for further maintenance with immediate effect. The GHMC jurisdiction which has a road network running to more than 8,000 km has been complaining that road stretches under R&B control “were not maintained properly” resulting in the civic body receiving flak from the citizens.
“Particularly during the monsoon when the roads get damaged, citizens used to complain and blame us without realising that these are with the R&B Department. Despite trying our best to ensure good condition for roads with us, we get criticised for the inaction of the other department,” a senior municipal official recalled.
The issue was taken up at the highest political level earlier too, but the final orders never fructified and the municipal corporation was forced to spend from its own budget to repair some of the R&B roads quite a number of times. The new road length that joins the GHMC inventory now includes the key ones such as Banjara Hills Road No.1, S.P. Road and M.G. Road in Secunderabad, Road No.36 of Jubilee Hills leading to Madhapur, Chandrayangutta, Attapur, Mehdipatnam and also the inner ring road.