The GHMC has given time till this Friday to private telecom, intranet and cable operators to come up with their infrastructure needs for the next decade or more to be taken into a common duct as road cutting would be disallowed on main roads.
The Municipal Corporation itself was going for major overhaul of 170-km stretches of key roads in phases where past bitumen layers are to be scrapped and cement roads would be laid with adjacent stormwater drains as well as a common duct to take all the cables.
“The major problem with our roads is flooding due to lack of adequate stormwater drains and road cutting for laying cables. We have told all operators to firm up their plans as we will be soon starting our pilot project on the new comprehensive road network between Charminar-Falaknuma and Indira Park to Nallakunta crossroads,” said GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu on Monday.
At a press conference after meeting State heads of telecom/internet/cable firms, he said operators were given the choice of forming a consortium to lay the common duct near the proposed new road network. Or GHMC could lay the duct and lease it to the service providers for a price.
“We have to work out the modalities as it is an expensive project costing Rs.1 crore per kilometre. We will also be meeting CPDCL and Water Board officials asking them to finalise their plans for the next five years to avoid road cuttings,” he explained.
A Mumbai-based firm had conducted a thorough road inventory survey – conditional assessment for the 170 km studying the existing situation and making traffic assessments, stormwater drains, etc., for the future, with cost estimates.
Mr. Krishna Babu wants to take up 60-km road length every six months and complete the project in less than two years on priority. The total cost works out to Rs.700 crore. The 170 km includes three metro rail corridors and roads belonging to R&B/NH. Category two roads constitute 670 km and category three is internal roads.
The plan is to ban road cutting on category one and even two after a while.
