HYDERABAD: With nearly half of Telangana's population residing in urban areas, the development of urban local bodies remains a top priority for the state government, said Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD), K Taraka Rama Rao on Friday, who released the Telangana MAUD annual report for the year 2020-2021. This is the fourth such report released by the Telangana government.
During the pandemic, the government made use of the lockdown period and took up major urban infrastructure development works, especially laying greenfield link roads, flyovers, RuBs, RoBs, and recarpeting of existing roads.
During the lockdown the development works on roads could be taken up for 12-16 hours every day, as the roads were free of traffic, as compared to only 3-4 hours of work during normal days.
Works which would normally take at least nine months to a year l, were completed in a record time of just 2-4 months.
He praised the selfless services of the frontline workers of MA&UD during the pandemic while ensuring daily sanitation, water supply, and other essential services.
The state government has decided to construct 15 new bridges across River Musi in the city. This was long overdue and will not only help millions of people in terms of time savings and ease of travel but will ensure opening up of new areas for planned development, SNDP was initiated to plan and execute proper drainage, surplus water flows in Hyderabad Urban Agglomerate during the rainy season.
Telangana stood number one in the country in the implementation of the PM SVANidhi programme under which Rs 347 crore loans were sanctioned to 3,47,006 street vendors, Minister said.
An Urban Center of Excellence is being planned which will be the hub of urban research, startups, training and conferences and as a center addressing urban issues meaningfully, MAUD Principal Secretary, Arvind Kumar said.
A greenfield township 'Neopolis' at Kokapet is being planned on the west side and with planned infrastructure growth which is underway, this will be a new hub in coming years and will play a crucial role in Hyderabad's growth. To make ULBs financially sustainable, about 20 ULBs got the ratings done during the year and nine of them are in the process of accessing market borrowings based on their rating.
Implementation of TS-bASS, a self-certification-based instant approval process for building permissions has been a major highlight during the year, more than 28,000 instant approvals have been issued since its introduction. The transparency, strict timelines, zero tolerance to corruption, and online-based approval process have ensured that citizens' interface with officials is minimised and this will go a major way in ensuring ease of convenience for citizens.
In addition to establishing FSTPs in all ULBss, MAUD concentrated on solid waste management, bio-mining to process legacy waste is being taken up in Warangal, Karimnagar, and other ULBs in cluster approach, and a new 19.8 MW waste to energy (WTE) became fully operational during 2020-21.
The MAUD during the year 2021-22 has proposed 49 works under 15 packages costing Rs 858 crore under SNDP, development of 2,067 tree parks (Pattana Prakurthi Vanalu) in the ULBs, and development of multi-layered avenue plantation along 400 km of road in ULBs, water supply schemes in 38 ULBs costing Rs 1,433 crore are slated to be completed during the current financial year.
Elevated Bus Rapid Transit System (Metro Neo) project, KPHB-Financial District-Kokapet in PPP mode is planned this year, widening of existing service roads of Outer Ring Road from Nanakramguda to TSPA and Narsingi to Kollur. Integrated veg and non-veg markets and Vaikuntadhamams in all ULBs costing Rs 700 crore would be completed this current year.
The year 2020-21 saw the first cable-stayed bridge lighting in India at Durgam Cheruvu with architectural illumination, deck lighting, and rock lighting completed with the project cost of Rs.184 crore. The first-ever Construction and Demolition waste management plant with a capacity to process 500 TPD was commissioned at Jeedimetla, first Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant in Southern India was launched at Jawaharnagar with a capacity of 19.8 MW. LED Street lighting on ORR for balance stretch of length 136 km was commenced duly finalising the tenders at a cost of Rs 100.22 crore in four packages with a period of completion of 12 months.
This illumination will facilitate improving the safety of road users on ORR and control any anti-social and illegal activities.
A first-of-its-kind Trauma Care facility in the country was introduced on ORR by the Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) at 10 interchanges rendering exceptional services for any emergency/accidents taking place on ORR. The trauma care system introduced is the lifeline for many commuters and acting as a saviour at times of distress, saving over 110 (27 percent) precious lives, and immediate first aid care extended to 225 persons (56 percent) immediately after the accident.
A Free 20 KL per month water supply scheme was announced for all the domestic connections in the GHMC area, under the jurisdiction of HMWSSB was announced and implemented during 2020-21.
A total of 224 Basthi Dawakhanas are currently functional in GHMC and 33 new Basthi Dawakhanas are ready for inauguration.