New Rajiv Rahadari skyway design halves project cost, saves land

Hyderabad: Architects from the twin-cities have come up with an alternative design for Telangana government’s skyway project on Rajiv Rahadari route that stretches 11.5 km from Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) to Airforce station in Hakimpet.

They say their design could reduce the built-up area and therefore the land acquisition apart from lowering the project cost compared to what the government design has projected.

Senior architect G. Shankar Narayan said that it was not necessary to have a long skyway of over 10 km if we could find ways to reduce the traffic congestion at Trimulgherry chowrastha. “The alternative design was made with the assistance of a few junior architects. We took the area from Parade Ground to Lal Bazaar junction and found out that an alternative model could minimise project cost, structures to be acquired and razed, loss of livelihood and employment etc,” Mr Narayan said. The project cost could also be brought down by about 50 per cent with the alternative design, he said

While the government proposed a 200-foot (60 metres) road, the senior architect said a 130-foot road (40 metres) would be enough to solve the traffic issues there. “Putting up a grade separator at Trimulgherry would be ideal. A flyover could be constructed from Karkhana to Lalbazaar so that traffic proceeding towards Rajiv Rahadari could run without any break,” he said.

He said that an architects’ team was seeking appointment to meet MAUD secretary Navin Mittal to put up the new design for the government’s consideration.