With barely two-and-a-half months to go for the prestigious international biodiversity summit to be held in the city, the government has finally relented and released Rs.125 crore grant to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for decking up the capital.
Mayor Majid Hussain and Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu announced at a press conference on Friday that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy had assured more funds depending on the expenditure for improving civic infrastructure for the meet.
Over 10,000 delegates from around 193 countries are expected to attend the meeting to be held at HICC, Madhapur in October. The Commissioner said the council had already approved works involving an expenditure of Rs. 400 crore to be taken up with government support and tenders would be called immediately for works involving an expenditure of Rs.125 crore.
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Civic works are to be taken up across 22 traffic corridors stretching to 125 km of roads leading to HICC, international airport, railway stations, star hotels and places of heritage importance. About Rs. 50 crore is to be spent for drains, Rs. 50 crore for sidewalks, Rs. 42 crore for uniform signages, road markers and hazard markers, Rs.89 crore for road profile corrections and Rs.25 crore for greenery.
“We have lined up Rs. 250 crore worth of works even if some of them may not be completed in time for the summit,” they said. These improvements would be for municipal roads only as the Roads & Buildings Department as well as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) would be spending close to Rs. 40 crore on their own.
GHMC identified S.P. Road (Begumpet), Charminar, Madhapur, Banjara Hills Road Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 36, Tolichowki, Gachibowli and Ameerpet-M.J. Market stretch for repairs by these departments. Few road stretches were also being handed over to public sector firms and corporates for three years maintenance.
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Corporates to help
The SBH in association with JNTU Fine Arts is organising a sculptors’ camp next month. Firms like L&T, GVK, NFCL, APREDA, Nagarjuna Constructions, Ramky, Greenko, Mantri Developers, Radission BLU, Butta Group, Apollo Hospitals, Kamineni Hospitals and others were also pitching in contributing Rs. 7 crore.
Thirty-five fountains in various parts of the city are to be revived at a cost of Rs.51 lakh and Rs.1.28 crore will being spent for sprucing up 14 major parks. A sum of Rs. 83 lakh has been sanctioned for the Charminar Pedestrianisation project, they said.
Round-the-clock sanitation units with 18,063 workers are to be pressed into service with additional vehicles to be monitored by senior officials even during nights.
Mr. Majid Hussain and Mr. Krishna Babu appealed to the shopkeepers and businessmen to help keep the city clean by not littering the roads. Citizens were also urged not to throw debris indiscriminately as designated dumps have been assigned for each zone. Those defacing walls by sticking posters, flexis and the likes would be punished.
Fines ranging from Rs.100 to Rs.10,000 are to be levied for littering, debris dumping or defacing and even criminal cases will be booked for repeat offenders, they warned.