GHMC’s 3-step solution for bad roads

GHMC’s 13th Ordinary Meeting was conducted at the GHMC head office on Saturday. The agenda for the day had 14 questions which were posed by different corporators.

When the agenda about the roads in the city came up, there was much furore by all the floor leaders. The leaders in unison demanded that the roads need a comprehensive plan to keep the people’s property tax payments justified. Responding to this, Somesh Kumar, Commissioner, GHMC said, “When I had just taken charge as the Commissioner, the engineers didn’t have a clue about the roads. So I had devised a plan to create accountability amongst the SEs and EEs. I had assigned one engineer to one road and they knew the road at the back of their hand. Then we took up a three step process of repairing the roads.

The first, listing the bad roads; second, allocating a responsible authority towards the road and then finally a small survey to understand the road. This was done because, if you take up road works without figuring out what’s wrong with it, no amount of repair can heal the road.” He further added that all the 24 divisions would be given Rs 50 lakh to begin the tender procedure for their roads on a short term basis and then go into depth later. In the long term plan, the commissioner has identified 79 bad roads measuring up to 114 kilometres in distance. “It will take Rs 316.2 crore to complete them. The best solution for a city like Hyderabad is concrete roads,” felt Somesh Kumar. The commissioner has assured that most of the roads would be repaired by December 30.