The work on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) having entered the final lap, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has now initiated steps for proper maintenance of the prestigious 158 km-long stretch that circles the city beyond the suburbs.
For the purpose, the planning body has decided to hand over the operations and maintenance to contractors for the ORR stretches of Gachibowli-Shamshabad (24.38 km), Patancheru-Shamirpet (38 km) and Shamirpet-Pedda Amberpet (33.30 km) for a three-year period.
The contractors selected for the job would be entrusted with tasks such as maintenance of carriageway, service roads, shoulders, open spaces, embankments, islands, signage, road furniture, lighting and safety among others.
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The other aspect of the assignment happens to be incident management by way of road patrol and surveillance complete with first aid, basic automobile assistance and road safety works.
From identifying possible encroachments to providing crash barriers and repairing potholes and crack sealing to asphalt treatment and clearing litter and debris, the authorities look at handing over the tasks to contractors.
For assisting the users of ORR, a round-the-clock route patrol would be done with personnel trained in traffic management, road safety and primary first aid and also offer help for vehicles that breakdown. According to the officials, each of the patrol vehicles would be equipped with fire extinguisher, gas cutter, hydraulic jack, towing and other required paraphernalia. A key component of the exercise would be making available ambulances with required life support and life saving medicine, equipment and paramedical staff to handle instances of accidents.
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“To ensure that the stretches are in right condition for road users, the teams will carry out daily, weekly and monthly inspections to check and attend to issues such as potholes, cracking and patches, rutting, defective bridge deck areas and blocked drains,” said an official.