It is common for various infrastructure projects to be developed by private developers under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) system.However,perhaps for the first time in the country,civic infrastructure laying of roads,water pipelines and sewer lines,etc will be taken up by private developers in various colonies.
The cash-strapped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has come up with an idea to rope in private developers to build civic infrastructure in over 800 residential colonies where facilities are rather abysmal.
The development work will be taken up only in those colonies where the layouts are approved by the municipal corporation or regularised under the Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS). As part of this,it is proposed to invite tenders from private parties to provide urban civic infrastructure in various peripheral colonies.
The GHMC will bear a part of the expenditure by mobilising funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM),World Bank and Hudco.The balance will have to be borne by the developer who will be reimbursed by way of annuity.The responsibility to maintain the infrastructure lies with the developer.Officials said there is pressure from the residential welfare associations for providing basic facilities like roads,water,sewer lines and streetlights.
As the civic body is in deep financial crisis,it is not in a position to take up developmental works on its own in all the colonies as the cost could run into several hundreds of crores of rupees.
To fulfil the demands of the colonies,the GHMC needs about Rs 600 crore.In the last two years alone,nearly Rs 1,000 crore has been spent in the surrounding municipal circles like L B Nagar,Kapra,Serilingampally,Uppal,Alwal and Kukatpally for providing civic infrastructure, a senior official of the corporation said.
The GHMC standing committee members are demanding that all the undeveloped colonies,irrespective of their legal status,be developed under BOT. Similarly,the members wanted even slums in core areas to be given priority.When contacted,GHMC chief engineer R Dhan Singh said the standing committee had in principle agreed for the proposal and a consultant would be appointed for taking up preliminary investigation.
Comment : The concept is good if developers could be drawn with a workable business model Keyword Tags Hyderabad News,GHMC, Colony Development
Rate News on a Scale of 5. 5th Star Correspond to 5.
