HYDERABAD: No one wants to travel to the IT corridor in Cyberabad - they have to, mostly because of their jobs. It is well known that daily commutes between the centre of the city to areas like Gachibowli and Financial District can drain commuters, both physically and in spirit.
For all these days, commuters travelling between Tolichowki and the aforementioned areas would take one of two routes, one via Biodiversity Junction and the other via Khajaguda. Commuters would choose the route depending on the traffic. But what does one do if the State undertakes major roadworks, and chokes traffic, on both these roads?
Recently, the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (HRDCL) took up construction work on a 5.4 km stretch on a busy road in Khajaguda. Techies would use this stretch as a detour to reach Wirpo Junction and residents of Nanakramguda would also use it. The commuters would use the other route, via Biodiversity Junction, but even here the ongoing construction of a flyover has taken up precious carriageway. The two-lane road has lost one full lane at some places, creating several bottlenecks. With exhausted options, commuters are forced to get stuck in traffic.
Annoyed by the situation, a Twitter use B Santosh demanded to know why the road works were taken up simultaneously. In his tweet aimed at the Minister for MAUD KT Rama Rao he said,”I don’t know as to why the two roads (construction of the flyover and white topping of Khajaguda) will be work in progress at some point of time. I don’t understand that there is no sync between some department regarding work so alternate routes can be taken.”
“There is a terrific(sic) traffic jam up until ORR starting from the Khajaguda junction. Even those who travel to the airport use the stretch but the poor stop-gap systems put in place is affecting the drive time,” another techie, Ramanjeet Singh observed.
White topping at Khajaguda to completed by Sept
Meanwhile, officials say that the work at Khajaguda should be completed in September, subjected to length of current monsoon season. The project, which began in April is set to cost exchequer `50 crore. Mohan Naik, HRDCL Chief Engineer said told Express that this was the single largest carriageway constructed in the city and that both sides would be white-topped to aid traffic flow. “We have already laid a portion of the road to hold PQC tests,” he said. While inspecting the works on Friday, he said, “For the bigger picture, people have to adjust for a while to facilitate road works.”