Private firms to take over upkeep of 32 Indirapuram road verges

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) will outsource for maintenance its 32 central verges spread over an area of about 60 kilometres in Indirapuram, officials said on Friday, citing dearth of funds and resources as the reason for the decision.Officials of the authority’s horticulture department said that the outsourcing process and modalities will be finalised within this month.

“The selected agencies which fulfil our parameters will be given the central verges to maintain, take up plantation, repair of central verges and grilles, regular watering of plants and greenery, disposal of waste etc. It will be in form of a lease for a period which will be decided soon. In return, we will allow these agencies to take up branding and put up advertising in form of fixed-size unipoles. These can be put up every 100 metres so that there is no restricted sight issue for drivers on roads,” said SK Bharti, authority’s horticulture officer.According to Bharti, the department spends about 25-30 lakh annually on maintenance of the central verges.

“The agencies which have required resources, equipment and manpower will be assigned different central verges in form of a lease and will have to upkeep and grow the existing species and also plant new specified ones,” Bharti added.

The GDA officials said that they have prepared a list of about 40 different conditions on the basis of which the central verges will be offered to private agencies.

The officials have also proposed that treated water from the Indirapuram sewage treatment plant be used for upkeep of central verges.

The decision also comes amid complaints by residents in Indirapuram regarding poorly maintenance of central for the past 3-4 years. “The entire outlook of the township suffers from poorly maintained central verges. These are damaged at some places while at others the grilles have been damaged. The plantation also lacks poor maintenance. The trees have not been pruned properly and the canopy at place is touching the electricity cables. If GDA is outsourcing the central verges,” said Kuldeep Saxena, resident of Shakti Khand.“If GDA is outsourcing the central verges, it should ensure that these do not get full of advertising hoardings. The focus should be more on upkeep,” Saxena added.