Three flyovers, urban floods, disease outbreak, privatisation of road maintenance, budgetary travails, and two fatal accidents in a row on the newly constructed flyover define the calendar year 2019-20 for GHMC.
The corporation recently finalised the tenders and entered into agreements, for maintenance of 709 km of road stretch in the city by private agencies, for five years. If successful, the move could be a watershed development for city infrastructure, as damaged roads have been a chronic issue the government has not been able to sufficiently address for decades. Recent monsoons, marked by their bouts of torrential downpour, left the city roads in tatters, and commuters fuming. Potholes resulted in fatal accidents, with GHMC doing precious little to restore the roads properly, owing to shortage of funds. Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, K.T.Rama Rao, during his maiden meeting with GHMC officials, mooted the proposal for private maintenance of city roads, which was given shape immediately.
Despite fund crunch, GHMC could complete construction of three flyovers under the Strategic Road Development Plan, respectively at L.B.Nagar, JNTU, and Gachibowli. Though depending on bond issue initially, GHMC has decided to go for rupee term loan for the remaining ongoing projects under SRDP, unable to raise funds at the required scale solely through bonds. Officials are hopeful that the coming year may expedite all these projects, if the term loan comes through.
The project is not without blemishes though. Two accidents in quick succession, resulting in three fatalities have earned infamy to the flyover near Biodiversity park at Gachibowli. Serious doubts have been raised about the flyover’s design, forcing the government to set up an expert committee to pore over the design aspects.
The committee has recently submitted its report, making a series of suggestions to improve safety, and till the measures are in place, the flyover will remain shut for commute.
Several localities were flooded and road stretches were inundated during repeated spells of heavy rain during monsoons, which eventually resulted in serious Dengue outbreak in the city. GHMC’s lack of preparedness was exposed, when the situation went out of control, and High Court had to intervene to whip the corporation to action. In order to combat the flood situation, GHMC has completed storm water drainage works at various locations with an expenditure of ₹26.4 crore. Several more works have received sanction.
The double bedroom housing project has not yielded much for the city’s poor this year too, despite tall promises about delivery of all the one lakh homes in 2018 itself. During the year, only 108 housing units have been handed over, even while a total of 8,620 houses are ready for distribution. The coming year may bring good tidings, as 46,279 more units are in the finishing stage.
The proposal to build 52 foot over-bridges and eight sky-walks too has not hit the ground this year. The year saw construction of only five FOBs from previous package.
