The flipside of Brand Hyderabad

Civic body faces ire of govt officials

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao promised in August that Hyderabad would become the most liveable city in India. But a 66-year-old man’s death in an open manhole on Saturday due to negligence of a contractor has brought the shoddy infrastructure in the city back into limelight. This is a serious dent to the city’s image as it hosts the prestigious XI Metropolis World Congress. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has drawn flak from almost every other government departments including the police, Water Board and heritage officials in the past few months for inferior quality of work

The ongoing XI Metropolis World Congress will be used as an opportunity to propel the ‘Brand Hyderabad’ image by showcasing projects such as Hyderabad Metro Rail, Hussain Sagar Lake reclamation, Cyberabad IT Corridor, Rs 5 meal scheme, Outer Ring Road etc. But at the core of these projects lies the basic infrastructure which, recent reports suggest, lies in a shambles. Over the past couple of months, the GHMC has been facing flak from various government officials for deteriorating infrastructure.

Shoddy roads

The GHMC had earmarked on a Rs 14.2-crore XI World Metropolis Congress meet for improvement of 22 roads and footpaths, lane marking, decorative lighting at important places, repair of defunct fountains and cleaning and repairing of murals. This apart, for the financial year 2014-15, the GHMC has reserved roughly Rs 1,600 crore, from its total Rs 4,599 crore, for re-laying and re-carpeting roads across Hyderabad.

Another few crores have been earmarked for road over-bridges, road under-bridges, flyovers etc. However experts point out that in the last six months, not even 25 per cent of the budget has been spent.

With so much emphasis on infrastructure, the civic body had a harsh awakening on Saturday when a man fell to death in an open manhole in Himayatnagar, due to negligence by a contractor.

This is not the first death reported due to poor infrastructure. A survey by the Hyderabad Traffic Police revealed that as many as seven mishaps take place every day in the city. In the first five months of this year, around 1,056 road mishaps had taken place in which 966 people were injured and 162 people were killed.

While many were victims due to usual reasons like over-speeding and drunken driving, the survey emphasised that the GHMC is to be also blamed for the accidents. It said, “It was due to the faulty road designs, improper junctions and several other infrastructure defects at the mishap prone areas.”

Storm-water drains

The Water Board officials too were in sync with their police counterparts. The board was not at all pleased with the way the GHMC dealt with overflowing rainwater in the city.

A senior Water Board official pointed out that every time it rained heavily, GHMC workers opened manholes so that water did not remain on roads.

“On doing that surplus rainwater fills up the sewerage, due to which backwater levels increase and enter homes. It happens every time when there are heavy showers,” he lamented.

The official said that it was the duty of the civic body to maintain storm-water drains across the city that are supposed to contain excess or overflowing water on roads. “Our nalas are being used as storm-water drains, even though it is present at several places in the core areas of the city,” he explained.

The civic body’s action, said the HMWSSB official, was due to improper maintenance of the storm-water drains. “I understand that it takes a lot of money to complete the task in the entire city, but it’s their responsibility to maintain the functioning of the drains so that water does not overflow on the streets,” he said.

Heritage structures

Heritage officials too were miffed with the civic body for neglect of work. Three years ago, the GHMC had floated proposals to restore and conserve heritage sites. The Char Kamans restoration work was allotted Rs 1.08 crore, the Sardar Mahal and Mahbub Mansion allotted Rs 3.33 crore and Rs 4.76 crore respectively and the budget for Murgi Chowk was yet to be drawn. Unfortunately, these proposals only remained on paper, as till date no work had been taken up for the restoration of these sites.

Officials from GHMC put the blame on the consultant of the restoration project. Condemning the blame game being played by the civic authorities, heritage and civil society activists earlier this month questioned that if the consultant was not working, why was he retained for a whole year.

The GHMC responded that they have now appointed two new consultants for the project. With the elections in the not so distant future, the GHMC officials have to buck up to boost their image.