GHMC to crack the whip on footpath encroachment

Hyderabad: Viswajit Kampati, Director Vigilance Enforcement & Disaster Management of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said that directorate was deploying six special teams i.e., one team for each zone consisting of 20 officials including workers with modern equipment, JCBs, debris removal vehicles to remove footpaths encroachments in coordination with traffic and law & order officials.

B Janardhan Reddy, commissioner GHMC said in 9,100 kilometers of roads in the GHMC limits, 54 lakh vehicles are registered and 5 lakh vehicles from other regions also use the roads every day. With the growing number of vehicles, the pressure on roads is building up and encroachments too are increasing.  The GHMC is planning to take up a special drive and the main aim of the drive is "Right to Walk" on Foot paths for the convenience of the Pedestrians.

The GHMC will not penalize the petty vendors but during the course of the drive if anybody opposes and after the drive if anybody found encroaching again severe action will be taken against them by booking criminal cases, posing heavy penalties, cancelling the Trade License to curb this menace.

Each team has been allotted 8 stretches i.e., 8x6 altogether 48 stretches are being taken up in the first phase. for example Chaderghat to Ramkoti around 3 kms stretch, likewise 48 stretches will be covering  around 127.5 kms length of roads where 4133 identified encroachments will be removed on priority. Some of the teams are already on the sites directing the encroachers to remove voluntarily before the drive, if not the special teams will remove them immediately from 30th June without issuing any notice under section 405 of Act provision of the GHMC.