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23 crore down the drain
The last time the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials visited Charminar was on September 9, 2014. A hurriedly conducted meeting with the locals followed by promises that the project would be completed soon was announced. Since then there has been no progress.
- 16 years have gone by since the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project started and Rs 23 crore has been spent. But there is no visible change
- Civic groups want the project to be handed over to tourism department
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The last time the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials visited Charminar was on September 9, 2014. A hurriedly conducted meeting with the locals followed by promises that the project would be completed soon was announced. Since then there has been no progress.
This in a way summarises how the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP) has progressed since it first started in 1999--meetings followed by inactivity.
In response to an RTI filed by the Forum for Good Governance, the GHMC, has said that till March 2015, Rs 22.96 crore was spent out of which Rs 10 crore was spent towards compensation to building owners but failed to provide details on the beneficiaries and how many properties remain to be acquired.
The project promised a vehicle free zone, landscaping, cobbled streets and illumination, except for a small stretch in which stones were laid for pedestrians nothing much happened. M Padmanabha Reddy, secretary, Forum for good Governance, says, “People visiting Charminar are not able to even spend a few minutes due to heavy traffic and pollution. It is time the government rethinks and makes amends to all the time lost.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, Rao Chelikani, vice president, said, “It is better to handover the project to the tourism department and set a timeline. The GHMC has too many projects in hand.”
The authorities are facing resistance from shop owners, pushcart owners and management committees of four religious properties masjid-e-dadamiyan, masjid-e-saleemunissa at Kali Kaman, masjid-e-mansoor Khan and ashoorkhana panjesha at Panjesha.
A senior official of GHMC said that they have had to face opposition from not only single owners but 18 of them from a single building-Jyothi building.
