GHMC to construct 850 hi-tech bus shelters in Hyderabad

​Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to construct about 850 modernised bus shelters across the city. The bus shelters construction project would be taken up under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

The GHMC proposes to provide modern facilities like free WiFi, modern public toilets, anytime water kiosks, FM radio, comfortable seating and proper illumination besides a provision for allowing electronic streaming of bus timings and routes.

Following instructions from Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K Taraka Rama Rao, the GHMC and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) officials went to New Delhi to study the modernisation of the existing bus shelters in the city. He also asked them to identify shelterless bus stops across the city to construct modernised bus stops. Against this background, a joint survey has been conducted by the GHMC, ASCI and the city RTC officials. During the survey, the officials had identified that there were 833 shelterless bus stops in the city.

A senior GHMC official told ‘The Hans India’ that if the private agencies failed to properly maintain the bus shelters they would be blacklisted and legal action would be taken against them as per the GHMC Act. He said that the tenders for the new project would be finalised during the first week of September.

The GHMC official further said that in phase-1, construction of about 300 modernised bus shelters would be completed in less than six months and the remaining would be completed next year in a phased manner. The official also said that there would be strict vigil on the private contractor and the agreement would be made in such way that the agencies would be held responsible for even a minor damage for a period of five years.