Battered and bruised: Telangana roads cry for attention as repair works move at snail’s pace

Despite sanctioning Rs 6,445 crore since December 2023, the Telangana Roads and Buildings Department has completed only five of 230 projects. Rural roads remain in poor condition as contractors hesitate to bid due to delays in payment and pending bills

Hyderabad: The Roads and Buildings Department makes tall claims of road works being executed across the State, but the conditions of roads, especially those in rural areas, reflect a contrasting picture.

Many roads across the State are battered and bruised, and riddled with potholes. Compared to urban areas, the road conditions in rural areas are even worse.

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However, the department claims that many works have already been sanctioned with a cost of Rs 6,445 crore since December 2023. Interestingly, of the 230 works that were sanctioned, only five covering 51 km have been completed so far with a cost of Rs 86.2 crore, reflecting the pace with which works are being executed in the State.

The officials also said many works are at different stages of execution, including the estimate stage, tender stage, work order stage, agreement stage, and works in progress.

Of the Rs 6,445 crore worth of works sanctioned, officials said 140 works covering 1,339 km with Rs 4,135 crore are under progress. Officials have been drawing plans for executing works, but contractors were not evincing interest in taking up the works, fearing a delay in payments of bills.

Many contractors, who had executed works in the past, were making repeated appeals to the department to clear their pending bills.

For many works, the department had floated tenders, but contractors did not file bids. For a few works, tenders were floated three to four times, yet there was no response from the contractors. Even as monsoon arrived in the State, many road works, including patch works, have not been grounded this year.