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'No road cuttings in the GHMC limits'

Tuesday, 08 September 2009 09:38 administrator
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The New Indian Express 08.09.2009

'No road cuttings in the GHMC limits'

S Bachan Jeet Singh


Despite the ban on cutting of roads during the monsoon, a private agency has been doing exactly that in Ameerpet.
HYDERABAD: Before the onset of the monsoon, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner S P Singh had categorically announced stated that the corporation would not permit road cuttings in the Greater Hyderabad limits during the rains. Singh had said that permission would be given only in cases of emergency like water and sewage logging.

However, as they say, promises are meant to be broken. Especially, those made by a municipal corporation. Even as rains have been lashing the city, one can witness unabated road cutting by both government and private agencies. No action has been initiated except a penal paltry sum or sometimes just a warning.

Several main roads, including some notified thoroughfares and internal roads have been left with gaping trenches. These ditches have become death traps for motorists. In the recent rains, several cases of motorists falling into such trenches and being injured have been reported.

In the last few weeks, roads have been dug up at Ameerpet, S R Nagar, Erragadda, Vengal Rao Nagar, Chintal Basthi, Mehdipatnam, Begum Bazar, Feelkhana, Paradise, Ranigunj, Padmarao Nagar, road near Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Masab Tank, Vijaynagar Colony, Barkatpura, Nallakunta, Vidyanagar, Goshamahal, MJ Market, Khairatabad and several Old City areas.

Adding insult to injury is the shoddy restoration work. Motorists and four-wheeler drivers alike receive nasty jolts whenever they take such roads as gravel, BT and other material mixed with rain water become a sureshot recipe for road mishaps.

Speaking to Expresso, GHMC officials say that cutting of roads is banned in the city during the monsoon between June and November.

Agencies which are allowed to cut roads include Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), Central Power Distribution Company Limited of Andhra Pradesh (CPDCL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Airtel, Tata Tele Services, Idea, Hutch/Vodafone, Tata Communication Ltd (VSNL), Vision Infra Pvt. Ltd and other private firms.

During 2008-09, GHMC gave permissions for road cutting of 472 km and 100 km up to July, 2009-10 for laying water, sewerage lines, OFC cables and other service lines.

There are several other agencies which cut roads without seeking permission.

GHMC authorities say that they will swing into action if local people inform them about illegal road cutting operations. Cases will promptly be booked, they insist.

Road cutting charges for BT roads on 35 notified roads is Rs 1,040 per RMT (Running Metre), other BT roads, Rs 1,040 per RMT, CC roads Rs 940 per RMT etc.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 September 2009 09:40
 

Hassan CMC wants increase in development charges withdrawn

Tuesday, 08 September 2009 01:14 administrator
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The Hindu 08.09.2009

Hassan CMC wants increase in development charges withdrawn

Staff Correspondent

The charges have been increased from Rs. 75 to Rs. 300 per square metre

Councillors’ delegation submits memorandum to Deputy Commissioner


Opposition: The councillors of Hassan CMC at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Hassan on Monday.

HASSAN: All 35 councillors of the Hassan City Municipal Council, led by its president Nethravathi Girish and vice-president C.R. Shankar went in a delegation to the Deputy Commissioner Office urging him to withdraw the increase in development charges.

Addressing presspersons, Ms. Girish said that earlier development charges after conversion of land (from agriculture to non-agriculture) was fixed at Rs.70 per sq. metre. The CMC collected development charges of which Rs. 20 was kept with the CMC and remaining Rs. 50 was paid to the Hassan Urban Development Authority. A few months ago, the Deputy Commissioner increased the development charges to Rs. 300 per square metre. Ms. Girish said this hike was the highest in the State.

She said that following the increase, people who had converted their land and applied for grant of license for construction of houses would not pay the development charge and continue construction work. There are 3,000 such applications pending with CMC.

Ms. Girish said that at the monthly meeting of CMC held in August, he council passed a unanimous resolution urging the Deputy Commissioner to withdraw the hike.

Councilor H.T. Prakash of the BJP wondered what was the yardstick adopted by the Deputy Commissioner while increasing the development charges.

As the Deputy Commissioner was not in station, CMC president presented the memorandum to Additional Deputy Commissioner Subbaraya Kamat.

Commissioner of Hassan Urban Development Authority Paramesh said that before 2003, development charges of Rs. 70 were collected by the CMC within its municipal area. This was continued in the absence of Government order.

Now, the Government had passed orders and as per this order, the HUDA had to collect development charges of Rs. 300 per sq. metre. The authority will not get any share in the development charges collected by CMC and vice-versa.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 September 2009 01:23
 

Ominous ‘signs’ for city streets

Monday, 07 September 2009 09:42 administrator
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The New Indian Express 07.09.2009

Ominous ‘signs’ for city streets

S Bachanjeet Singh

 

With rains lashing across Greater Hyderabad through the last 10 days, the accompanying gusts of wind have left GHMC officials worried. Due to the weather conditions and wind, it has been observed that around a few hundred flexiboards and hoardings are either getting damaged or weakened under the area covered by the the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

Officials have apparently been sitting idle, as no stringent measures have been taken by the GHMC to check the structural stability of hoardings, which are standing dangerously in different corners of the city. Despite incidents of collapsed hoardings killing civilians since last two years, advertising agencies have allegedly failed to submit stability certificates to the GHMC since the last two years, a structural engineer at the GHMC informed Expresso. As per regulations, advertising agencies, numbering roughly between 40 and 50 within the GHMC limits are required to submit stability certificates to the corporation on a yearly basis.

Though the GHMC had initiated a panel of five structural engineers, who would be responsible for issuing structural stability certificates, a majority of agencies have failed to submit the structural stability certificates till date. Presently, there are about 1,800 hoardings in the core areas of the Twin Cities, while another 700 comprise the surrounding municipal circles, apart from around 100 uni-poles.

“It is the responsibility of the advertising agencies to approach the empanelled engineers and obtain the structural certificates and ensure that design and calculations are the same on paper and ground, but they are not doing so as they to pay fees to them,” the engineer said. A word of caution came from the Engineer when he said that many of the hoardings may have already become weak, given inclement weather conditions.

GHMC officials revealed that while they have been issuing notices and requesting ad agencies to submit the certificates, a majority are allegedly seeking more time for submission while a handful have complied.

Sources informed that even though some agencies had submitted structural stability certificates for each hoarding, the specifications were inaccurate in most cases. The GHMC officials, in this regard were ignoring blatant violations by advertisement agencies, they added.

Incidentally, an Experts Committee, which studied the condition of hoardings in the Twin Cities found that the majority of hoardings are structurally weak and as such, pose a potential threat to life and property. The Committee was instituted following the death of a few people after a hoarding collapse last year and recommended the need to appoint a third party check on structural stability of hoardings, apart from periodical checking on stability and permission for erection of hoardings.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 September 2009 09:45
 
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