Nearly four months after initiation of the project to remove encroachments from footpaths, the GHMC has failed in reclaiming the spaces for re-construction of the footpaths at many locations.
The drive for removal of encroachments from various footpaths began on July 1, and continued till the end of September.
Many footpath stretches such as Koti, Dilsukhnagar, Malakpet, Dilsukhnagar, Kothapet, L.B.Nagar, Khairatabad, Punjagutta, S.R.Nagar, Erragadda, Kukatpally, ECIL, Sainikpuri, Barkas, Attapur, Rajendra Nagar, Chandrayangutta, Rethibowli, Himayatnagar, Narayanguda, Karwan, Miyapur, Habsiguda, Musarambagh and Amberpet were made free of encroachments by the newly-constituted Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) wing of the GHMC.
The then Commissioner of GHMC B. Janardhan Reddy had promised that the debris from all the footpaths demolished in the drive would be removed immediately, and new footpaths will be constructed.
He asked the zonal level officials to finalise estimates for reconstruction of demolished footpaths within two days and complete the works within the next 15 days. However, later, the Corporation has washed its hands of the responsibility of re-laying footpaths on many stretches where encroachment removal was carried out.
Wherever the road belonged to other agencies such as Hyderabad Road Development Corporation (HRDCL) or Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMRL), the responsibility for re-laying of footpaths has been shifted to them, though the demolition was taken up by GHMC, officials say now.
The EVDM wing has temporarily halted the drive now, as many officers were posted on election duty. So far, a total of 12,000 encroachments, big and small, have been removed in the city from various footpaths by the wing.
“Majority of the roads where the encroachment removal was done do not belong to GHMC. We are constructing 320 kilometres of fresh footpaths on the roads where periodic preventive maintenance works are on, but they are other than where encroachment removal was done,” said a senior official from GHMC.
Chief Engineer of HRDCL Mohan Naik said the corporation is carrying out footpath works on 84 kilometres of roads, and about half of the stretches have already been completed.
However, wherever the demolished footpath is considerably distant from the BT road, the Corporation is not taking up the work, he said. Besides, there are also stretches where the Corporation is planning developmental works and service roads, for which they will have to be dug up, and hence the footpath works are being postponed.
Much of the work is only being done on the Metro Rail corridors as of now, partly by HMRL and the rest by HRDCL.