Army steals a march over GHMC, digs roads
The tussle between GHMC and defence officials over digging up city roads to lay a hotline has reached the next level. The GHMC had not given permission to the defence officials to dig the roads, but they went ahead and dug up roads in Prakashnagar to lay a dedicated hotline under the Network for Defence Services Optical Fibre Cable (NFS OFC) project.
It turns out that the defence officials without the knowledge of the GHMC took permission from the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (HRDCL), which was created as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to fund road repair works.
According to GHMC sources, defence officials had sought permission to dig 56 km of roads to lay cables and paid the fee two years ago. The corporation delayed permission citing different reasons, including a ban on digging during the monsoon, Assembly elections and now, road repairs.
Sources said that the corporation had received instructions from higher authorities to delay permission as the defence ministry had not cooperated in giving defence land at Mehdipatnam, Bolaram, Owaisi Junction at Banjara Hills Road No 12, where a 150 sq m of land was needed to take up developmental activities.
Without informing the GHMC, the BSNL began digging roads at Prakashnagar. A procedure called horizontal directional drills (HDD) trenching from Malkajgiri up to Paradise junction has been taken up. When corporation officials rushed to the spot, they were shocked to learn that permission had been secured from the HRDCL.
The stretch which was trenched had been handed over to the HRDCL by the GHMC. The trenching works has been handed over L&T on December 17 last year. Facing a severe fund crunch, the HRDCL handed the roads back to the GHMC. However, the HRDCL still give permission to the defence ministry to dig the roads.
A senior GHMC official said that the corporation would verify the permission pertaining to trenching with Army officials to take a further decision. He said that for the remaining work, the GHMC would deny road digging permission the defence lands were handed over to the corporation.
THE GHMC was delaying permission to the Army to dig up city roads for its hotline, as Army officials were driving a hard bargain to give up land for developmental projects. The Army then moved the HRDCL.