It might be one of the most prestigious projects of the city and stake claim as country's longest such facility, but the P.V. Narasimha Rao Elevated Expressway sadly lack day-to-day maintenance.
Built to provide seamless connectivity from the city with the International Airport at Shamshabad and opened for traffic in October, 2009, the 11.8 km elevated stretch has no daily maintenance mechanism in place so far.
While roads in most parts of the city get swept on daily basis, the expressway continues to be left unattended and neglected. Vehicular traffic heading for the airport or returning to city from there is being forced to travel on a stretch that is neither swept nor cleaned.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) which constructed the elevated expressway says that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has to take up the task of daily maintenance of the stretch.
“We do not have the necessary equipment such as sweeping machines or manpower. Like it does in the rest of the city, the GHMC has to take up the task. We have even approached them a couple of times on the issue,” says an official with the HMDA.
With the GHMC not taking up the job here, the HMDA is doing the sweeping on the long stretch “once in a while”. As per the agreement, the contractor who built the expressway has structural liability for a period of two years. According to officials, this liability is for the structure and to attend to defects if any that could crop up, and certainly not sweeping the road on a daily basis.
ADVERTISEMENT
HMDA's complaint is that the municipal corporation has not taken up the maintenance job on two other facilities, one flyover at Hitec City and another at Langar Houz. In fact, the corporation also promised to take up landscaping in the space below the Langar Houz flyover but has not been done so far, officials rue.