Bidders shy away from nala works

47 NALA bottlenecks were to be removed and tenders for this invited in July last year.

BUT TENDERS FOR only 23 have been finalised so far.

THERE WAS NOT a single bidder for the others, though the process of inviting tenders was repeated five times.

OF THE 800 encroachments on these 47 nallas, the GHMC has managed to clear only 200 in a year.

The work of widening nalas and demolishing encroachments has been painfully slow and there are not many takers for the job either.

Forty-seven nala bottlenecks were to be removed and tenders for this invited in July last year.

But tenders for only 23 have been finalised so far. There was not a single bidder for the others, though the process of inviting tenders was repeated five times. Of the 800 encroachments on these 47 nalas, the corporation has managed to clear only 200 in a year.

A senior GHMC official said that even in the 23 locations for which tenders have been finalised, the town planning ground level staff and local political leaders have not been co-operating. In fact they have been ignoring the instructions of municipal administration and urban development minister K. T. Rama Rao.

He said that the private agencies finalised for nala widening works have been sitting idle for several days due to the public revolt reportedly provoked by local leaders. He also alleged that townplanning and revenue department officials do not have official records of these nalas.

Ground level staff is hand-in- glove with the owners of the encroached properties who are giving misleading information about the parameters of the nalas. This has led to many public spats.

The civic body has estimated that it will cost `230 crore for demolishing the encroachments and paying compensation to those whose dwellings have been demolished.