After failing at construction of the much vaunted swanky, modern bus shelters across the city with state-of-the-art facilities, the GHMC has, nevertheless, called for another round of tenders now for construction of new bus shelters at more locations.
That the tenders were called during lockdown, and despite a crisis situation precipitated by the alarming spread of COVID-19 in the city is raising many eyebrows. As per the tender notification, bus shelters are to be constructed at a total of 201 locations across the city, after demolition of the existing shelters. The work has been divided into three packages of 50 shelters each and one of 51 shelters, which are to be constructed, operated and maintained by the concessionaire.
The concessionaire may derive advertisement revenue by operating the bus shelters, against payment of concession fee to GHMC. The concession period will be three years starting from the date of agreement and inclusive of the construction period of eight weeks. At the end of the concession period, the shelters should be handed over to GHMC. April 30 has been fixed as the last date for filing bids.
GHMC had, two and a half years ago, awarded works for construction of modern bus shelters at 826 locations, of which only 479 have been constructed as of now. In the completed shelters too, concessionaire agencies could not provide facilities as promised, say officials. Of the 826, a total of 396 were to be constructed after demolishing the existing shelters, while 430 were to be built at new locations. A predominant majority of the completed shelters were constructed at the location of existing shelter. Right of way and other problems were encountered at new locations chosen by TSRTC, in coordination with ASCI, officials informed.
Several shelters were uprooted after being erected, as they came up on the Hyderabad Metro Rail route. A few more were vetoed by the Traffic Police for various reasons. “A total of 336 were Grade I and Grade II shelters, which were to have toilet facilities. But to my knowledge toilets were built only at few locations due to space constraints,” shares an official under the condition of anonymity. Instead, the agencies offered to build equal number of community toilets elsewhere in the city if GHMC provided them space, to which the authorities agreed.
Notwithstanding any of these constraints, the fresh bids for construction of shelters included toilet facilities yet again. Officials informed that the new lot of shelters are to be constructed after demolition of the existing shelters, for which the concessionaire period with previous agencies has recently expired. However, they have no clue as to how many of them have space enough for construction of toilets.
