GHMC roads: CM takes officials to task

Hyderabad, August 23 : Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday took the officials of GHMC, R&B and other departments concerned to task for the damaged roads in the GHMC area.

“What are you doing to solve this problem? Why roads are getting damaged after each rains? Why this is happening frequently? I want a comprehensive road action plan within a week,” the Chief Minister said. The GHMC in coordination with the R&B, HMWS&SB and other departments should come out with an action plan in this regard. “I also want to know how much fund is required towards this,” he said.

The Chief Minister said funds would not be a problem. But the road repair and maintenance should be taken up on war footing. “This cannot go on like this. If the road conditions are far better in Delhi, why it is not so in Hyderabad?” he asked.

Kiran Kumar Reddy had a detailed review meeting on the road works in the GHMC area with Ministers and officials at the Secretariat on Friday. Ministers Dr J Geetha Reddy, M Mukesh Goud and D Nagender attended the meeting. Chief Secretary Dr P.K.Mohanty, Principal Secretary (MA&UD) S K Joshi, GHMC Commissioner M T Krishna Babu, HMWS&SB MD Shyamal Rao, Principal Secretary (Finance) Premchandra Reddy, engineers and other officials attended the meeting.

The Chief Minister wanted the officials to prioritise the roads as per the traffic requirements and population and come out with an action plan to lay all weather-proof roads using the best materials and maintaining the required camper conditions. The Chief Minister said there seems to be lack of commitment, lack of supervision and improper planning for the present conditions. He said he will have a meeting again next week and by that time the action plan should be ready.

Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the Principal Secretary, MA&UD to hold a meeting in this regard. Officials said that considerable damages to roads in GHMC are due to the excessive rains during the season. The GHMC Commissioner said that there were excess rains in June, July and August compared to previous years. Roads got damaged due to the incessant rains very frequently and because of the stagnated water. He said total rainfall received in GHMC area during this monsoon from 1-6-2013 to 22-08-2013 is 512 mm against the normal 406 mm i.e. 26.1 per cent excess. Number of rainy days are 12 in June and 17 in July and 15 in August with minimum dry spells.

Due to continuous and incessant rainy days for three to four days and changed rain fall pattern with occasional resulting in flash flooding and inundation, the BT Roads have been damaged or worn out and big potholes and large damaged stretches have been occurred. The Identified water stagnation locations have been rectified either duly correcting the profile of road or with suitable storm water drain.

The re-carpeting of BT roads will be taken up after correcting the chamber correction including milling of road surface, if necessary. The roads are getting damaged very frequently due to sewer over flows and water leakages at many places coupled with multiple road cuttings done by various under ground utility departments. Out of the 6780 Kms of Road network in GHMC area, about 300 Kms of length belong to R&B & NH Departments which are main corridors and balance 6480 Kms are under GHMC.

Further, the Secunderabad cantonment board is also maintaining roads in the cantonment board area. The extent of road length damaged is identified as 61.135 Km at 2739 locations on the GHMC area. Officials informed that so for 15310 number of Pot holes have been identified and 13501 Pot holes have been filled by taking the Bitumen Mix. So far 39.54 km is improved/attended. Balance will be attended along with new damages on a continuous basis. Since the monsoon season is still in the mid-stage, the pot hole filling and patch work is being taken up as per requirement to minimize the inconvenience to road users.

The permanent re-carpeting and strengthening will be taken up immediately after the rainy season. In spite of the above constraints the GHMC is geared up to take up the pot hole filing and patch work and is being monitored on daily basis to avoid inconvenience to the public. INN