Green activist moves High Court, says flyovers can't ease traffic flow moves

Hyderabad: A PIL has been moved before the Hyderabad High Court, seeking to declare the in-principle approval by the TS government for construction of multilevel flyovers covering 20 junctions in the GHMC limits, as illegal.

K. Purshotham Reddy, an environmental activist of the city, moved the PIL. He also urged the court to declare the according of permission for felling  trees for establishing new industries under the “Ease of doing Business” policy as illegal and arbitrary. Mr Reddy submitted that the state government's Strategic Road Development Project (SRDP), under the pretext of solving traffic issues, seeks to destroy valuable natural resources such as KBR National Park and Durgam Cheruvu apart from various other public and private facilities.

In fact, rather than solving the problem of traffic congestion, the proposed  project will add to the menace, Mr Reddy said. He said traffic congestion in New Delhi was an example that despite wide and large roads, a larger network of metro still cannot reduce the traffic congestion. He brought to the notice of the court the government had in the past 15 years widened many roads and built flyovers, but could not ease traffic flow.

Mr Reddy said that most developed cities have responded to their traffic problems by drastically reducing the road space, imposing heavy parking charges, restricting vehicles into core market areas and even demolishing existing flyovers. He contended that the SRDP should be stalled and the focus should be on promoting public transportation.