Sanitation on commercial stretches to be privatised

Over 1,000 kilometres of road stretches in Hyderabad city identified; tenders soon

The GHMC is preparing ground for handing over sanitation responsibilities on busy commercial stretches in the city to private agencies. This comes on the heels of privatisation of road maintenance works on major stretches under the Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme (CRMP).

Notwithstanding the condition in CRMP agreement that sanitation on these respective roads will be the maintenance contractors’ responsibility, all the CRMP roads too are being included for private sanitation, the announcement of which is likely to come soon.

Reliable sources informed about orders from GHMC Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar to the zonal and circle level officials asking them to identify the commercial stretches in their respective areas where the private agencies can take over sanitation.

Accordingly, over 1,000 kilometres of road stretches in the city have been identified across various circles, and formal announcement is awaited to call for tenders. The identified roads, which are over 60% occupied by commercial establishments, include 709 kilometres which are under the CRMP.

Apart from the CRMP stretches, internal roads too where commercial activity is very high, such as those in Abids, Nampally will come under private sanitation.

Sources informed that tenders will be called for circle wise, and agencies will have the opportunity to bid for more than one circle too.

Agencies securing the bids will have to assume services such as sweeping, garbage lifting, and transportation up to the transfer station. They will be responsible for sanitation 24x7 unlike now when sweeping is done only once early in the day.

Garbage will have to be lifted twice or thrice a day depending on the intensity of the activity on the stretches concerned, leaving no scope for littering of the streets. The agencies will be responsible for garbage lifting even from residential establishments on the identified stretches.

Sweeping of roads

As per the existing arrangement, sweeping of the roads is done once in a day by workers from the GHMC’s sanitation wing— most of them outsourced. Garbage clearance is done by the private SAT (Swachh Auto Trolley) drivers, who are not employed with the GHMC, but provided subsidised loans to buy the vehicles.

Though the corporation has a concession agreement with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited for solid waste management in the entire city, it is yet to hand over the jobs of waste collection and transportation to the agency.

Officials said SAT drivers are lax in lifting commercial waste, which is resulting in littering of roads and garbage heaps on the road margins.