HYDERABAD: In a blow to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the State government has decided to make the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) in charge of the maintenance of the sewerage network in the peripheral municipal circles from September. Presently, the sewerage system in the peripheral areas of Greater Hyderabad limits is under the control of GHMC.
The decision to hand over the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the sewerage network in the city outskirts back to HMWS&SB was taken by Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao in a meeting a few days ago. In the peripheral circles of the GHMC, there are 66 wards, 3,600 km of sewerage pipelines with 3.30 lakh manholes. The operations involve an expense of around Rs 8.50 crore every month.
In March last year, the HMWS&SB took over the maintenance of sewerage network in the peripheral circles from the GHMC to ensure proper planning, maintenance and better functioning. However, after a few months, all the GHMC corporators from peripheral areas were unhappy with the functioning of HMWS&SB and had urged KT Rama Rao to hand back the O&M to the GHMC.
During that time, the corporators complained to Rama Rao that after the works were handed over to the Water Board from March 1, 2020, several grievances and works submitted by the corporators were not taken up. The corporators said that if the trend continued, it would become difficult for them to face the public in their respective wards as elections to the GHMC were around. After taking stock of the situation, Rama Rao issued instructions to revert O&M works to GHMC in October last year.
Now, the State government felt that the entire maintenance of sewerage system should be under one umbrella for the proper monitoring of the sewerage system. The Water Board is already maintaining the sewerage system in core areas of the twin cities.
Delay in addressing issues
After GHMC took over the maintenance last year, the transfer of operations resulted in a delay in the addressing of issues related to redressal of grievances like sewage overflow, leakages and manhole repairs.