Miyapur: These volunteers are giving bus stops a ‘facelift’

Hyderabad: A group pf 20 individuals are volunteering for cleaning up bus stops one their weekends to give the bus stops in Miyapur a facelift.

Parivarthan Team has bee working on the project effortlessly for the past one month where they have given these bus shelters a makeover.

So far the team has worked on a minimum of six bus stops with work on three more stops on their immediate to-do list.

Speaking on the costs of these renovations, Vinay Vangala who started the initiative also an employee with a private firm said the costs is a mere Rs 1,500 which is raised by the group members.

“We clean up the entire premises. This includes removing flexis and posters stuck to the shelters,” Vangala said adding the work is more about commitment than the money.

The team members scrape off flexis and posters from top to bottom and give it a fresh coat of paint. The group comes together on weekends for their project.

“We continue to monitor if the bus stops remain clean and that there are no fresh items stuck to them,” said another team member Srinivas Bellam who works as a facility manager centre. “It is not a one-time job,” he adds.

“We did not want to just speak out on social media, but wanted to actually make a difference on ground,” he added.

Another volunteer Nanda Kishore who is an entrepreneur by trade said that the idea germinated from the need to “fix issues ourselves” instead of simply complaining.

“We wanted to support the GHMC as we understand that officials to have their own set of problems,” Kishore said.

From the time they have started their work, more people have approached the group asking for help for clean-ups in their area as well.

Crediting the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for its aide, Vinay Vangala said the team’s efforts have been helped in an instrumental way by the civic body, which lends some its staff for the clean-up work.

“We hope that we can create more awareness that public property belongs to us, and as custodians we need to take care of it,” Vangala says.