Hyderabad: City infrastructure gets better as corona keeps people indoors

Hyderabad: Even as over 12 million people in the State capital are literally held up inside four walls of their houses due to unsparing attack of novel coronavirus, Hyderabad seems to be undergoing a silent makeover as several of its infrastructural initiatives are being done at a fast pace. Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao on Friday said that works to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore under Strategic Road Development Project (SRDP) were completed in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

The Minister was replying to questions on SRDP works in the city raised by TRS member Arikepudi Gandhi and others during the Question Hour in the Assembly. The Minister said that the size of the SRDP was about Rs 39,695.16 crore. About 18 project works taken up with Rs 6,000 crore were already completed and were being used by the citizens.

Minister said that the GHMC is spread across four districts Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Sangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri, administered by respective District Collectors. "For better coordination in the ongoing works, the government has introduced a reform where the GHMC Commissioner is designated as the Special Collector for land acquisition," said the Minister.

Minister said the city had been facing a gridlock with lakhs of vehicles coming onto the road every year, hence the government was promoting public transport in Hyderabad city to resolve the problem. The government took the service of Lee Associates, which gave a comprehensive report after surveying for two years.

Replying to a question raised by AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, the Minister further said that SRDP projects were also underway in the old city and 25 per cent of the funds were spent on old city developments. He said that 81 roads were taken up for widening and out of these 44 were completed.

The Minister said Rs 713 crore were spent on road widening works in the old city. Out of this, Rs 477 crore was allocated for general roads, Rs 228 crore for SRDP, and Rs 8 crore for missing link roads. He assured the MIM leader of have a meeting with the MLAs from the old city.

Rama Rao said that the GHMC saved about Rs 568 crore by implementing the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) scheme. He also said that for the first time in the country, the TDR scheme was introduced and had helped speed up the acquisition of land for road widening.