GHMC chief's advice to Dr. CVSK Sarma

Updated: September 28, 2016

(April 18, 2007) HYDERABAD: The newly appointed Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Chief Commissioner and Special Officer C.V.S.K. Sarma is said to have advised commissioners of municipalities integrated into the new set-up to continue their normal work till a new administrative set-up is put in place.

Mr. Sarma, also the ex-officio Principal Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department, interacted with the commissioners on Tuesday for the first time after he took charge. The new structure is expected to be unveiled in a couple of months' time and in the meantime the respective officials can take up their normal functions. Incidentally, erstwhile MCH Commissioner Sanjay Jaju too attended office on Tuesday at his usual chamber. It is now being speculated that Mr. Jaju most likely would be given an important post befitting his status in the new set-up. An order to this effect is expected anytime soon.

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Dr. CVSK Sarma to get GHMC on the rails

Commissioner to hold meetings on administrative set-up

HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) might finally get going with Commissioner C.V.S.K.Sarma getting down to the task of finalising an administrative set-up and selection of officials for undertaking key tasks.

A proper shape could begin to see light of the day by the weekend where review meetings are scheduled to be held with Chief Secretary J. Harinarayana on Wednesday, following which Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy will hold a review on Saturday.

Having just returned from his trip to the United States, Dr. CVSK Sarma is believed to have held discussions with his senior staff at the head office as well as the erstwhile commissioners manning the 12 municipalities that have been aligned into the corporation in the last two days.

Five zones

The Government has proposed to divide GHMC into five zones of South, East, North, West and Central Zones, 18 circles and 150 wards. It is quite likely that the Additional Commissioners in the head office might become joint commissioners and zonal commissioners, in turn, will assist them.

Below the zonal commissioners will be the deputy municipal commissioners. The Commissioner is also expected to put his thoughts into delegation of powers since he has had second thoughts on the issue and kept an earlier order on the issue in abeyance.

In the meantime, the ordinance changing the post of Sanjay Jaju, from the Additional Commissioner post in GHMC to that of a Special Commissioner of GHMC was issued on Monday.

To know more about Dr CVSK Sarma, GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) Commissioner, Hyderabad, please visit at https://dr-cvsksarma.blogspot.com/.

Greenlands flyover to be opened for traffic today

HYDERABAD: With the National Bridge Research and Development Centre (NBRDC) giving a safety clearance, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to open the completed portion of Greenlands flyover for public use immediately to ease traffic congestion at the Greenlands junction and on the Begumpet Road over Bridge.

Commissioner & Special Officer Dr. C.V.S.K.Sarma has announced that the completed portion will be opened for traffic on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, Additional Commissioner (Traffic & Transportation) N.V.S. Reddy and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) V.S.K. Kaumudi, along with senior officials, examined different traffic streams and designed the lane markings, speed-breakers and safety buffers. Their effort was to ensure conflict-free merger of traffic flows coming from the new flyover and from D.K. Road on the old Begumpet RoB near the Country Club.

“Speed-breakers are to slow down the traffic at the merger point. We will be stationing a constable to regulate the flow assessing both streams of vehicular flow. We have also put up sandbags and other barricades as additional safety measures at the end of the completed portion,” explained Mr. Reddy. Starting after Chief Minister’s Office, the new flyover, estimated to cost Rs. 13.30 crore, has a total length of 1,110 metres of which construction of 670 metres has been completed (24 spans out of the total 39 spans).
Technical challenge

Joining the new flyover with the existing RoB was a technical challenge successfully solved by renowned structural engineering experts N. Rajagopalan of IIT, Chennai, P.G. Venkatram of L&T Ramboll and Ch. Anjaneyulu of Pragathi Engineering Consultants. With wider span lengths of 72 feet and a long obligatory span of 131 feet over the Greenlands junction, the flyover would offer good riding quality, he said while pointing out that the piers beyond the railway track towards the HPS side were also completed.

The bridge portion over the railway tracks would soon be taken up and the entire flyover would be completed by February as the issue of construction over the track was sorted out with submission of structural design calculations to the Railway authorities and vetting by the JNTU engineers.

To know more about Dr. C.V.S.K. Sarma, GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) Commissioner, Hyderabad, please visit at https://dr-cvsksarma.blogspot.com/.

On the Fast Track of Digitisation : Dr. C.V.S.K Sharma, Municipal Commissioner, India

With the world experiencing the IT boom, it is mandatory that municipalities embrace this modern day phenomenon. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation leads the way. Read this interview with Dr. C.V.S.K Sharma, Special Officer and Municipal Commissioner to know about e-Governance in  Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, to egov magazine.

What are the different areas of municipal services that stand to get benefited by the inclusion of IT services? How is IT being harnessed by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC)?

We  are looking at all the services and backend processes involved in delivering such services. At the same time we are also using IT for internal processes like human resource planning and training etc. which is broadly categorised as:

• A comprehensive citizen-administration interface
• A government to citizen (G2C) and citizen to citizen (C2C) web platform

GHMC, Hyderabad website http://www.ghmc.gov.in/ enables citizens to access various products and services provided by the GHMC  from the comfort of their homes. Such as:

• Settlement and payment of property tax
• Payment gateway for online payments
• Instant birth / death registration
• Instant birth / death certificates’ issuance
• Submission and tracking of building plan applications
• Public grievance lodging through Parishkruthi
• Status of infrastructure works
• Tenders’ submission and management system
• Financial management system
• Citizens forum
• Opinion polls etc.

Almost every service extended by GHMC is being extended online, for citizen comfort.

The speed with which municipalities function has often attracted criticism, do you think IT can help in speeding up the work of municipalities? Also can it provide easy accessibility of services to people?

Yes, I admit that there is criticism in abnormal delays in delivery of services. We have taken adequate corrective steps for speedy delivery of services by adopting IT services. We are pursuing an integrated approach in providing better services to the citizens of Greater Hyderabad. Accessibility to services is being pursued through services platforms of citizen service centers, e-Seva kendra’s, facility centres and Andhra Pradesh (AP) online centres. Transparency of service delivery is enabled through less interventions of human interface between the officials and the citizens. Accountability of roles and responsibilities is ensured to have timely and quick responses to grievances and citizens problems. There is now lesser delays in dealing with service demands or grievances.

How can IT bring in transparency in the functioning of municipalities?

We have a four-pronged agenda – accessibility, transparency, accountability and responsiveness. For citizens who do not have access to Internet, fully computerised e-Seva and citizen service centres have been set up whereby, they can pay their bills and remit all municipal taxes. They can also request for birth / death registration certificates, apply for permits / licenses, etc. The corporation website enables citizens to access various products and services provided by the GHMC from the comfort of their homes. Almost every service extended by GHMC is being extended online, for citizen comfort.

The growth of IT services in GHMC offers an opportunity as well as challenges. The opportunity is the wider scope to serve more citizens using technology at the grassroot level. The challenge is to facilitate technology to reach every citizen to avail municipal services at his/her convenience.

What are the challenges that cropped up while implementing IT services in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation?

GHMC did face resistance in introducing IT services. We are overcoming them through job enrichment programmes conducted regularly in our training centres. We also aim at over all personality development.


 Even after training is imparted, there is a need for re-training. I am sure that our continuous training programmes are creating impact and over a period of time we will be in a position to perform better using IT services.

We also conducted a study (SWOT analysis) covering various issues and the shortcomings which helped us to take appropriate corrective measure for overcoming the shortcomings and strengthening the positive points.

What has been your experience of introducing technologies like GIS in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation?

We made a beginning by establishing GIS Centres in GHMC and in our zonal offices and started realising the benefits of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. We are the first municipality in India to introduce (RFID) technology for our solid waste management, which definitely improved the efficiency in lifting and movement of garbage. We are further improving based on our rich experience in implementation. We are about to introduce the citizen interface centres or kiosks which will bring a sea change in citizen.

To know more about Dr. C.V.S.K. Sarma, GHMC (Greater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation) Commissioner, Hyderabad, please visit at https://dr-cvsksarma.blogspot.com/.