No construction funds for Inner Ring road

Hyderabad: Though the 50-km Inner Ring Road sees exponentially more traffic when compared to the Outer Ring Road, the three civic bodies —  Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Roads and Building department — have no plans to give it a facelift.

Funds are only being pumped into the ORR. In a day, close to 3,000 commuters ply on the ORR. The number is ten times more on the IRR. However, the three civic bodies point to one another to take the initiative.

The IRR was executed in 2007 and was jointly taken up by the three to facilitate quick travel from several areas in the city to the international airport at Shamshabad. The project was envisaged to reduce the travel time by 45 minutes from Secunderabad to the new airport.

Six years later, the commuter takes an hour-and-a-half using the inner ring road to reach the airport. 

Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain said, “A major chunk of the IRR that is damaged belongs to the R&B. Out of the 625 km falling under Hyderabad’s jurisdiction, 36.40 km belongs to the R&B. During the N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s regime, at a Cabinet meet, the GHMC had asked these departments to hand over the city units, so that the connectivity in whole of Hyderabad can be handled by the GHMC. However, nothing was done. GHMC has the funds, but the roads need to be handed over to it.”

Meanwhile, Anand Kumar Samuel, ORR project head, HMDA, said, “The IRR falls under the jurisdiction of the GHMC and the R&B. The HMDA is only responsible for the roads on the city outskirts.”