Hyderabad: Telangana roads and buildings (R&B) minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, on Wednesday, February 5, instructed to speed up works on the roads that are identified to be made using a hybrid annuity model (HAM) with private-public participation.
The minister’s directions came in a high-level meeting at the Telangana Secretariat with roads and buildings department officials.
The HAM roads model was introduced by the Union government in 2016, as a mix of build, operate and transfer and engineering procurement and construction of roads by private players. Through this model, the private developers would be also responsible for the maintenance of the roads for 15 years.
Through the HAM roads, the state government is aiming to build, operate and transfer more roads in villages by investing 40 percent of the money and getting 60 percent investment from private developers.
The meeting included discussions over the construction of missing link roads from mandal to district centres and missing link roads from district centres to the state capital through the HAM model.
The government has identified 1690.26 kilometres across 82 assembly constituencies. The state government aims to speed up the construction of unpaved roads in the rural areas of the states.
Priority on tarring dirt roads
Minister Komatireddy told the officials that if they identified dirt roads, they would be immediately approved for construction and could be taken up within two to three months.
The minister also directed the R&B department officials to identify consultants for the HAM roads and submit detailed project reports (DPRs).
The minister directed the officials to identify bad roads and unpaved dirt roads getting the priority. He warned the officials that they should not select good roads to be included and help the private developers.
“Since the consultants will only benefit if the good roads are brought into the HAM, officials should identify roads which are at the worst and causing problems for the people,” to redevelop.
The minister said that strict action should be taken to ensure that government guidelines are followed in the construction of dividers, lighting, road widening, and paved shoulders.
The minister also warned that there would be no compromise in the construction of roads being built with public funds. If substandard works are done, the work will be immediately cancelled, he added.
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