HYDERABAD: A modern, air conditioned bus shelter having baby feeding room, SoS button, toilets, kiosks and eateries was inaugurated by Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao on Tuesday. The shelter has been constructed opposite to Shilparamam, near Hitech City. The minister, after inspecting the facility, said the twin cities would have at least 30 such Grade-1 bus shelters.
Grade-1 modern bus shelters will have dustbin, separate toilet for men and women, mobile charging points, water dispensing unit on pay and use basis (optional), baby feeding room (optional), WiFi and ATM/coffee vending machine (optional). It will also have air conditioners in passenger seating area and ticketing machines will also be installed in the future.
Interestingly, access to the baby feeding rooms at these bus shelters will not be restricted to just passengers. Any mother wanting to feed her child on the go can use the facility. Also, the SoS button will alert command centres in case there is an emergency. GHMC has proposed the construction and renovation of as many as 826 bus shelters in the twin cities in four packages under Design-Build-Operate-Finance-Transfer (DBOFT) mode.
Amongst the 826 bus shelters, 430 new bus shelters are being constructed at new locations while the 396 existing shelters will be modernised and with new facilities. The cost of each bus shelter ranges from `1 lakh to over `2 lakh. The 826 bus shelters were divided into four packages, based on the technical and financial bids, after the approval from GHMC Standing Committee and Council GHMC allocated the works. Package-I was bagged by Uni Ads Private Limited (214), Package-II by Prakash Arts Private Limited (219), Package-III by Uni Ads Private Limited (194) and Package-IV by KKRC Infra Private Limited (199). The concession period is 15 years.
Encroachment demolished after KTR’s order
Four days after residents of Khajaguda, Serilingampally complained of encroachment by builders into the area of an upcoming open storm drain, IT Minister K T Rama Rao on Tuesday ordered demolition of the same. Builders of Jain Housing Project had illegally encroached upon the 8-feet wide under construction storm water drain, which had connections from Khajaguda, Nanakramguda and Yellamcheruvu. In their complaint, members of Sai Aishwarya Plot Owners Welfare Association wrote, “The builders had blocked and diverted the flow of water into our colony.”
ORR toll: New agency to man gates from May 24
To avoid any revenue loss to the Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) and keeping in view the expiry of contract of the agency, it has been decided to entrust ORR user fee collection and daily remittance work to IRB Infrastructure Limited purely on temporary basis. IRB Infra offered to pay HGCL an amount of Rs 87,03,900 a day.
The new agency will take over toll operations at 00.00 hours of May 24. ORR users were informed that the monthly passes issued by Eagle Infra India Ltd need to be migrated to IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd., duly surrendering the existing monthly passes. They should make note of this and the details of user fee (toll) and monthly passes are available on HMDA website www.hmda.gov.in. HGCL invited bids for awarding user fee collection rights using HGCL’s TMS infrastructure for a period of nine months, which can be extended by three months.
Govt draws plan to solve sewerage issues in peripheral areas
After the successful implementation of drinking water master plans for peripheral areas of Greater Hyderabad, State government has drawn plans to implement sewerage master plan for surrounding Kukatpally, Uppal, Quthbullapur, Kapra, Alwal, Malkajgiri, L B Nagar, Gaddiannaram, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Patancheruvu and Ramachandrapuram circles at an estimated cost of `3,100 crore. This was announced by Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K T Rama Rao during the inauguration of water reservoir in Doyens colony in Serilingampally and modern bus shelters on Tuesday. He said that implementation of sewerage master plan would help in addressing the sewerage problems in the peripheral areas.