Fund crunch to hit road works
The road laying works that have been moving at a snail’s pace might come to a grinding halt at any moment due to severe fund crunch. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which has taken up the works under periodical preventive maintenance (PPM) at a cost of Rs721 crore has not even completed 50 per cent of the works after the administrative sanction was accorded in January.
Adding to the slow pace of works, the contractors to whom the works have been allocated were laying single layer when they were supposed to lay two layers, to ensure good strength and prevent from road damages during monsoon. With IMD predicting heavy rains during next few days, the newly laid single layer roads are prone to damages and about `200 crore spent on the roads will go waste.
Termed PPM, the work involves milling of the existing BT road, re-profiling and re-laying it. This is ideally done once in five years. However, all that GHMC has been able to do was mere patchwork at several stretches, which results in uneven bitumen pads in the middle of the road leading to bumpy rides. Sources said that the civic body has been carrying out PPM to roads which were laid a year ago, some much before GHMC elections in 2015. The civic body had given work order worth Rs 355 crore to 48 works out of which 37 were already in progress. He said works worth `26 crore were under the process of approval. Out of 1,047 kilometres, the corporation till date had completed about 400 kilometre works, which is not even 50 per cent. Surprisingly, the corporation has not only failed to achieve 50 per cent of its target but also laying single layer roads.
A senior GHMC official on condition of anonymity said that the after finalising the tenders, contractors immediately took up the work and laid single layer roads. He said that PPM works worth `200 crore has been taken up in the city and if the contractors submit the bills, the corporation would clear their bills. The official said that the corporation till date has not received a penny from the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation.