Hyderabad: Everything has not come to a standstill during the lockdown, especially on the roads of Hyderabad.
Here, a civic body, aided by some out-of-the-box thinking, is going about doing maintenance and repair works, which are nearing completion in 40 days, and which would in normal circumstances have taken four to five months.
Making effective use of the lockdown, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (HRDCL) are taking up works worth about Rs 1,750 crore, of which works worth nearly Rs 1,000 crore are already done.
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To complete this quantum of work during regular days, it would have taken at least four to five months, but the GHMC has managed to complete them in about 40 days, says Municipal Administration and Urban Development Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar.
“This out-of-the-box thinking is now being noticed and appreciated by other State governments and even the Central government. My counterparts from other States are complimenting Telangana government for the work being done during the lockdown,” he says.
More importantly, these works are capital intensive and being taken up with extensive use of machinery. The limited number of workers deployed at the sites was strictly made to follow physical distancing and other prescribed rules.
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All these would not have been possible but for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao, says Arvind Kumar. Since the lockdown began, Rao has held about six to seven review meetings with contractors, GHMC, HRDCL, HMDA and other department officials and has been continuously monitoring the works on a daily basis, he says.
The Minister personally spoke to top officials and ministers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for permitting supply of bitumen. One more consignment of bitumen is arriving shortly from Nasik and the contractors and engineers are motivated to complete the works as per schedule, he adds.