Trench work continues

GHMC asked agencies to stop digging from June 1

Flouting norms: Deep trench work is in progress at Balkampet for laying a pipeline despite GHMC official diktat about stopping all work during monsoon, on Friday.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is caught in a Catch-22 situation in enforcing its own fiat on stoppage of road cutting and excavation work during monsoon.

If it stops work on the ongoing projects the impact will be felt by citizens, but if allowed, it may be hauled up for disobeying its own order.

“We cannot stop the work. We have to complete it. So what, if we miss a deadline,” shouted an official carrying out the deep trench excavation in Balkampet for laying a water pipeline. The work has been going on for the past one week, despite regular updates from civic authorities that all road cutting and digging work by various agencies has been stopped from June 1. The situation is similar in other places with workers continuing work. Pipeline work is going on in S.R. Nagar Colony creating traffic chaos.

In Sulaiman Nagar, work has been going on for the past one month for laying a sewerage pipeline. “This is a complicated work. Part of it is a pipeline and the other half is a concrete channel with a slab on top as the flow of water is high. This will take time,” said a work supervisor at the site, adding that the work will not stop.

Though trench work has been stopped on the Raj Bhavan Road, the road towards Khairatabad has been reduced to a single lane as nearly half of it has rubble and soil along with three huge cables sticking out dangerously.

Thursday’s rain turned the Jambagh Road into a slush and rubble stretch as officials hastily stopped work and covered up the trench.

On the fringes of Pallecheruvu in Bandlaguda, the grim traffic situation has a silver lining. “We have completed the retaining wall. In another 10 to 15 days the stretch of road will be open for traffic. Last year, during monsoon the overflowing water created havoc. This year such a situation is not foreseen,” said a South Zone GHMC official.

“Work on this road and bridge has been going on for the past three years. Now we are under tremendous pressure to finish it though we took over only two months ago. This is not easy work. It will take at least two months for us to complete it. We are on the job continuously,” said an official supervising the work at the site.