GHMC plans special drive against footpaths encroachment

Hyderabad, December 18 (INN): The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation along with Traffic Police will conduct a special drive once in a week to remove encroachments on footpaths at various important junctions.

The decision was taken during the coordination meeting conducted by GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu along with Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) CV Anand and other senior officials at GHMC Headquarters here on Tuesday.

The Commissioner said that through special drives, the encroachments could be cleared in a phased manner at a particular corridor for the convenience of the general public and the pedestrians.

The issues pertaining to roads, modernization of foot paths, shifting of electrical poles and various civic related issues were also discussed during the meeting.

The Commissioner informed that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has expressed his satisfaction about the coordination and works and that were taken up for COP-11.

However, he said that the same coordination discontinued after COP-11 and heads of the departments were only coordinating during crisis.

Krishna Babu informed that Tuesday's meeting was arranged as a preparatory meeting as the Chief Minister would like to conduct a meeting with all the heads of the Government Departments in the next month.

The Commissioner also said that the Chief Minister was very much particular to give a new look to the footpaths and removal of overhanging cables in the entire stretch of GHMC main roads and also to remove encroachments on the footpaths on priority basis.

Krishna Babu said that the GHMC will be the coordinator to involve all the concerned departments in field visits so as to improve the quality and expedite the works, he added.

He also pointed out that the Loka Yuktha is viewing the problem of hanging cables very seriously and instructed the officials concerned to hold regular coordination meetings and visits to eradicate the problem.

While interacting with the officials, CV Anand said that it has been observed since so many months that in spite of several requests made to the authorities for removal of electrical poles on the main stretches and widened portions and nothing have improved.

Questioning the procedures involved, he directed the authorities to overcome such issues immediately as they are pending since a long time.

While intervening on the issue, the GHMC Commissioner directed the Superintendent Engineers of both the departments of GHMC and APCPDCL to have a special meeting with the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) every fortnight to have a proper coordination to sort out the issues within the stipulated time.

He also mentioned that GHMC was spending Rs 60,000 to Rs 90,000 for a square yard for Land Acquisition and directed the officials connected to be more careful while utilizing the public money.

Krishna Babu also pointed out that the lot of beautiful roads has come up in view of COP-11 and it has been observed that on some of the important roads the sewerage is overflowing for which he has directed the HMWS&SB and GHMC officials to prepare a action plan to curb such problem from the roads.

The senior officials from APCPDCL, HMWS&SB, Traffic Police, BSNL, Roads & Buildings, National Highway, AP TRANSCO, APSRTC and GHMC participated in the meeting.