Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development K T Rama Rao, who reached the rendezvous of MCR HRD here some 20 minutes late against scheduled time at 9 am due to bad condition of the roads on Monday, said the maintenance of the roads will be given to private firms.
KTR held at a workshop on “quality enhancement of engineering works” here with officials and stressed the need for upkeep of the roads with clean and green drive involving people. He reprimanded the officials and sought to know whether Hyderabad will become global city with such bad roads and lack of basic facilities and infrastructure. Annoyed at the pathetic condition of roads, he openly said, “How can we claim Hyderabad is an international city if we cannot pave way for Ambulances?”
“Hit by small rains, the roads are getting washed away in spite of spending several crores of rupees on laying roads”, he fumed. He also said the maintenance of the roads will be given to private firms. The State government plans to handover road maintenance works to private firms for the upkeep of the roads and to bear the expenditure circle-wise for three to five years’ contract. KTR said changes will be made to the existing Act and pave the way for construction of an inner ring road within the city to address the problems on the lines of the outer ring road.
The officials should now plunge into swift action to provide basic amenities and infrastructure to the people in a proper way, he said. The MAUD Minister expressed displeasure over repeated digging of the roads after laying them. He put the officials on toes saying that if the worsened situation of potholes, pits and uncapped roads will continue, we cannot make Hyderabad a global destination. There is much to be done to keep the roads as clean as possible by creating awareness among people, he said, adding that just for small rain the roads being washed away which speaks volumes about substandard works.
“Can’t we together work and coordinate for better roads as they are found like mirror in foreign countries”, KTR stated. He said the bad roads are causing traffic chaos and sneer menace of jams adding to woes of environmental pollution. The MAUD Minister expressed displeasure at the pathetic roads which should be maintained with top priority.
GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy and MG Gopal, Principal secretary of Municipal Administration and Mayor Bonthu Rammohan and Deputy Mayor Fasiuddin Baba and City Police Commissioner Mahender Reddy and other officials were present (NSS)