The building would be based on the Green Building Concept with the best available world-class technology, GHMC Engineering-in-chief, Panduranga Rao told Expresso.

GHMC has already appointed PM Consultants as advisor for the project for selecting bidders, evaluating tenders, legal matters and monitor construction activity till the project is completed.

For the Expression of Interest invited by the corporation, it has received four applications : (1) Premnath Associates, (2) Stup Construction Pvt. Ltd, 3) Design Associates all from Mumbai and (4) DK Associates from Delhi.

A few days ago, the GHMC convened a meeting in which three firms from Mumbai attended while DK Associates from Delhi skipped the meeting. They presented their primary concept designs for the proposed building.

Meanwhile, the State Government has appointed a seven-member committee to finalise the bidder. The committee will be meeting shortly to finalise the technical bids. Those who qualify in the technical bids will be eligible for the financial bid. The process will take two months.

The late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had laid the foundation stone for the new Council building on February 18 this year for the building.

Rao said that the office-cum-council hall would to accommodate as many as 400 members including 150 corporators, 50 MLAs, MPs, MLCs, Co-opted and other ex-officio members, 100 officials, 75 to 100 visitors.

The Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Standing Committee office, council secretariat and even offices of several senior officials as well as some departments are likely to be accommodated inside the proposed civic tower estimated to cost about Rs 50 crore. Of the 15 floors, the first three floors will be for used for parking and the last two floors will have a council hall. The present council hall is unable to accommodate the increased number of corporators, MLAs, officers and visitors. Rao said that building will come up in 0.8 acres (4,000 sq.mts) land on the Lower Tank Bund Road. At present, the open land is being used as a garbage transfer station site.

In an effort to ensure uninterrupted power to localities like Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Khairatabad, Raj Bhavan, Hyderguda, Panjeshah and many other localities in Old City, new 33/11 KV sub-stations were constructed.

In some cases, the load was transferred from one sub-station to other. According to officials, at Road No. 2, Banjara Hills and Road No. 12, 33/11 KV sub-stations were built almost six months ago but

power had to be drawn from the 132 KV substations located near Peddamma temple at Jubilee Hills.

To draw power, road cutting has to be taken up between sub-stations and the main source.

The work has to be taken up on a stretch of 5 km in both locations. For that, permission has to be taken by the CPDCL from the concerned department, GHMC, which maintains the road. But the GHMC has kept its decision in abeyance and has kept the CPDCL hanging for several months now.“There have been

regular power disturbances in Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Khairatabad, Old City and many other areas.

The existing sub-stations are completely overloaded. As a result, one or two hours of power cuts are unavoidable on a daily basis,” an official of CPDCL told Expresso. Officials said once these works are taken up, it would helpful to lakhs of people who would be spared the inconvenience of power cuts.

While the GHMC has not been sitting on the decision to allow road cutting to be taken up by the CPDCL, it has recently taken a decision to increase the road cutting fee by four times. Earlier, it used to charge Rs 500 per metre of road cutting. Now, the GHMC charges up to Rs 2,000. “The GHMC has taken the decision suddenly. As a result, all the projects are becoming financially unviable,” an official added.