Rush to take up civic works before Jubilee Hills by-elections backfires, as residents fume over inordinate delays

Residents of Jubilee Hills are angry over delayed road works started by GHMC just before the by-election. Monsoon rains and dug-up roads have made life difficult. Locals say the move was politically timed and has disrupted daily life completely

Hyderabad: The State government’s decision to greenlight road-laying works in several colonies in Jubilee Hills, in the backdrop of the impending by-election, has boomeranged, with residents fuming at the inordinate delays that have completely paralysed their lives for the past few weeks.

With monsoons still active, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) launched several projects to replace decades-old damaged BT roads with new Cement Concrete (CC) roads.

However, this decision to push the works weeks before the by-elections and at a time when monsoons have continued to dominate has left residential colonies here with dug-up, impassable roads, which have completely stalled civic life.

While the promise of a facelift is generally welcomed, residents have expressed intense anguish over the ill-timed construction. The consensus among colony residents is that this “facelift” is merely a political strategy.

Local Congress party leaders admit to the timing being strategic. “The reason is to lure the colonies ahead of the election notification for the Jubilee Hills by-poll to attract resident welfare associations (RWAs) and secure a victory,” a senior Congress Party leader at Jubilee Hills admitted.

At Kalyan Nagar Phase-I, Erragadda, which falls under the constituency limits, several internal roads were excavated by the GHMC. With civic works getting delayed, debris is piling up, becoming a major obstruction for residents trying to exit and enter their apartments.

The inordinate delay has frustrated residents, who complain that the never-ending works are impacting all aspects of their daily lives. School vans and buses that previously picked up and dropped off children in the colonies were severely affected. The lack of passable roads also impacted door-to-door garbage collection, which had to be halted, forcing residents to dispose of waste elsewhere.

“While the city was experiencing flooding and inundation during the ongoing monsoons, the GHMC permitted agencies to lay new CC roads in several residential colonies. It was a hasty decision,” said B Srinivas, a member of the Kalyana Nagar RWA, where several projects have stalled.

A senior GHMC projects official, however, maintained that the projects will be completed at the earliest. “Laying of new CC roads has been taken up after a long time, and GHMC is looking for the city’s development by improving basic amenities. We will complete the laying of new CC Roads within two or three weeks; until then, commuters have to take alternative routes.”