Hyderbad to privatise road maintenance

By Sandhya Ravishanker, CNBC-TV18

Come rain or shine, no more potholes or dug up roads. This is the promise that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is making to residents in the city. Their plan is to privatise the maintenance of 200 km of main roads in the city.

R Dhan Singh, Chief Engineer, GHMC, said, “As population grows it becomes difficult to keep up with traffic and the up keep of roads at the same time. It is a cumbersome process to call for bids each time a road needs to be repaired. We don't have enough staff for that kind of maintenance. This is the reason we have come out with a scheme of privatising the maintenance of roads.’

In about four months, GHMC will issue tenders for two packages of 100 kms of roads each. Two companies will be awarded the contracts for these areas. High traffic localities including Banjara Hills and Koti will be taken care of and spruced up on a daily basis. The Corporation believes this scheme will work out cheaper than maintenance by the government.

The Corporation will initially award a three-year contract to these companies for road maintenance. Depending on the success of this project, the contract period as well as the area will be increased to cover the whole of the city.