DoneHyderabad: Acting on high court directions, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has initiated a fresh drive to reclaim pedestrian spaces across the city.The move follows a large-scale enforcement exercise on Saturday, during which nearly 800 encroachments were cleared from roads. GHMC will now take up the drive in a phased, zone-wise manner, covering one circle every week, with a focus on clearing encroachments from roads, footpaths and nalas.In Feb, the high court upheld the civic body’s action and directed it to restore footpaths to their original condition, asking authorities to submit a compliance report within three months.To ensure effective implementation, GHMC will coordinate with HYDRAA and the traffic police. A detailed action plan has been prepared, identifying one major road stretch in each zone, with staff from all circles mobilised for the drive.Different wings within GHMC have been assigned these responsibilities. The vigilance wing will coordinate with law and order and traffic police, the engineering wing will arrange machinery and manpower, and the sanitation wing will handle removal of debris after encroachments are cleared.Officials said that along with removing encroachments, damaged footpaths will be repaired or reconstructed to improve pedestrian infrastructure.The civic body has also appealed to citizens and shopkeepers not to encroach upon footpaths and road margins, warning that violations will be removed departmentally if not cleared voluntarily.However, similar drives carried out earlier by the erstwhile Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) wing had only temporary impact, with encroachments reappearing within months.
