Private bodies to take up roads upkeep soon at Rajendranagar

Rajendranagar: As part of a pilot project of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to hand over maintenance of service roads to private firms, annual maintenance contract (AMC) of eight roads will be soon given to private players for a period of five years.

This eight stretches, three from GHMC and five from HRDCL ( Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited), have been taken up on pilot project for which the tender process has reached to an advanced stage. According to sources, the officials of both the departments are busy in finalising the modalities to give AMC of service roads to private firm.

The distinctive part of the pilot project is that the private firm, which wins the contract, has to take care of the maintenance of roads with all ancillary works and geometric improvement to ensure the stretches would be well maintained till the end of the contract duration of five years. This include re-carpeting, desilting of manholes, footpath maintenance, lane marking, sweeping, as well as promoting greenery on the wayside of the roads.

According to official records, the GHMC Rajendranagar controls a total 3.74 km of roads, while a major chunk of roads, about 47.334 km in Rajendranagar, comes under the supervision of HRDCL.

"Presently, the process of calling tenders is in progress and once it is completed AMC for five year of the roads will be handed over to the firm for who wins the contract, said EE Anjaiah, GHMC Circle Number 11, Rajendranagar.

"If everything goes according to the plan, the Telangana government will be the first to implement the project in the country and the proposal is already under consideration for quite a long time," the official said.