The ₹ 1,000-crore municipal bonds to be raised by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation this year will be entirely spent for development of roads, said Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao here on Wednesday.
Responding to queries from M.S. Prabhakar Rao, Bhupati Reddy, Gangadhar Goud and others on the Strategic Road Development Programme in the Legislative Council, Mr. Rao said the first tranche of ₹ 200 crore was already raised and a number of roads were being taken up. The bonds were raised at an interest rate of 8.9% and the Centre was requested for interest subvention and he would meet the Union Minister soon.
The GHMC was facing hurdles in taking up two roads towards Adilabad and Karimnagar Rajiv Rahadari as the Defence Ministry was imposing tough stipulations and demanding annual rent of ₹ 30 crore in lieu of parting with 100 acres of Defence lands though the State agreed to give 600 acres of land in Shamirpet. “There should be give and take attitude between the governments,” Mr. Rao said.
BJP member N. Ramachandra Rao said he would also represent to the Centre on the need to give Cantonment lands keeping in view development of the city.
The Minister said tenders for Uppal skyway were called along with NHAI and work would start soon and another skyway would come up near Aramghar Junction near Shamshabad. Overall, the plan was to develop skyways, roads in Hyderabad with ₹ 23,000 crore. The cable bridge on Durgam Cheruvu would be taken up once the six-lane Khajaguda-Nanakramguda road by Hyderabad Road Development Corporation was completed. For Musi project, they were expecting environment clearance by August and skyway work would also be taken up, he said.
Bus shelters
GHMC would take up construction of 826 modern bus shelters in four grades based on amenities in PPP method. Three agencies emerged as successful bidders and 85 bus shelters were being constructed in South Zone. The concessionaires would have to construct the bus shelters within 180 days, the Minister said.
