Civic body will retain old plan to ease traffic woes

Hyderabad: To ease the severe traffic jams that the IT corridor is experiencing, the GHMC has decided to implement its old master plan and make minimal changes to the road network. The civic body has signed a Rs 61-lakh deal with STUP Consultancy to draw up plans to ease traffic congestion, especially along the Metro Rail corridor.

The consultancy will prepare the master plan for the roads the Biodiversity Park, Khajaguda and Gachibowli areas.

The corporation will develop a 100-feet road from ESIC to Khajaguda and another at Divya Sree SEZ and the HKC Layout road (45 metres) to Old Mumbai Highway.

The fluid plans for the Hyderabad Metro Rail Phase II and Strategic Road Development Programme have turned into major hindrances. The consultant said that it cannot prepare a detailed project report before the two project alignments are finalised.

The corporation decided to largely retain the old master plan following the direction of caretaker minister K.T. Rama Rao. It would be slightly altered due the flyover construction under the SRDP and the Metro Rail Phase II.

A senior GHMC official said that the changes would be done only along the Metro Rail corridors, specifically from Miyapur towards the Old Bombay Highway and Lakdikapul to BHEL.

He said the orginal plan was to develop a 100-feet road from ESCI to Khajaguda, another along the Urdu University towards Khajaguda and a 100-feet road at Divya Sree SEZ.

Experts has suggested developing the HKC Layout road (45 metres) to Old Mumbai Highway instead of the road along the Urdu University.

The GHMC official said that though the master plan was finalised earlier, the corporation had decided to execute it only after completion of the Metro Rail and the SRDP. It had decided to act now to improve the road network in view of the traffic congestion.

Traffic chaos

• Road from JNTU to Biodiversity Park acts as spinal corridor between Kukatpally, Hitec City, Financial District and Gachibowli and surroundings.
• Major Junction along the corridor where traffic experiences unacceptable delays at Cyber Towers junction and Mindspace junction.
• Traffic volumes are growing so rapidly that junctions will not be able to meet the requirements in the very near future. Roads will be completely choked unless the junctions are provided with grade separated facilities.
• The right of way (RoW) of JNTU side of Hitec City main road is between 22m and 40m and ranges from 21m to 55m on the Mindspace side.
• RoWs of the road from Jubilee Hills check post to Kondapur ranges from 14m to 31m. It is 14m to 33m on the Jubilee Hills check post-Kondapur side of the road