Bear with bad roads in city till Nov: GHMC

Hyderabad, Aug 26 (INN): The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Friday made it clear that the citizens will have to bear with the bad raods and potholes in the city till November as it won't be able to carry out major repairs or recarpeting due to weather conditions.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, GHMC Mayor Banda Karthika Chandra Reddy and GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu said that the corporation has identified a total of 3,878 potholes on the 625 kilometres of roads in the GHMC limits caused due to recent heavy rains.

The GHMC proposes to carryout basic repairs at a cost of Rs 3 to 4 crore. However, the complete repairs or re-carpeting of roads would be taken up only during the month of November at the cost of Rs 60 crore.

The GHMC Commissioner said due to technical reasons it was not possible to carry out the repairs on damaged roads immediately as they won't stand the on-going rains.

However, the corporation would carry out the repairs using the material from Chudi Bazar Hot-Mix Plant. Even general public could inform the GHMC about major potholes on the Toll Free Number 1530 to ensure that roads remain usable and potholes do not pose major threat to the vehicle users.

Krishna Babu said that the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has directed the Roads & Buildings Department to handover the maintenance of 320 kilometres of its roads under GHMC limits to the corporation. He said this would enable the GHMC to get Rs 21 crore towards maintenance.

However, Krishna Babu said the government was contemplating giving the GHMC about Rs 20-25 crore for the effective maintenance of the city roads.

Regarding the collapse of a slab of nala near Fever Hospital, the GHMC Commissioner said its reconstruction would be started in the next 15-20 days. He said the City Traffic Police were asked to make proper arrangement to ensure that the GHMC take up the reconstruction work.

The Commissioner said that the GHMC was preparing an action plan to centralise the digging of roads in the new colonies. He said the roads would be dug at a time for the laying of water supply line, sewerage or other purpose.

It would ensure more life the BT roads that the GHMC lays in the city. He said the GHMC was also considering imposing tax on plastic bags being sold to the customers at the shopping malls. The GHMC Engineer-in-Chief R Dhan Singh also addressed the media.