City to Have Skyways, Multi-layer Flyovers
HYDERABAD:After proposals to come up with skyscrapers abutting Hussainsagar and turning Old City into an Istanbul, K Chandrasekhar Rao government in Telangana now wants to constructs roads on the lines of Bangkok. If all goes well, integrated skyways with multiple layers of flyovers will come up to ensure that Hyderabad city does not get ‘gridlocked’.
Apart from developing existing roads and constructing the skyways, the government also wants another airport to be built on the northern side of the city.
“Within the next two years, the face of Hyderabad has to be changed through an integrated approach of developing the existing roads and constructing 5-6 integrated skyways with multiple layers of flyovers all over the city. An amount of `25,000-30,000 crore would be spent by the government phase-wise for this,” Chandrasekhar Rao said while interacting with Chairman John Farrow, Managing Director M Phani Raju and senior consultant TS Reddy of LEA Associates South Asia, consulting engineers and planners, at the state Secretariat on Saturday.
For the development of roads, the three-pronged approach is: Improvement of roads which are critical and typical of the Old City, new city development, and finally, the HMDA area development.
KCR asked the delegation of the LEA Associates to draw strategies to be adopted to ease out traffic congestion in city. Rao asked them to come up with a plan where elevated highways could be constructed.
The CM said the surroundings of Hyderabad are being added to the city with additional population every year and the growing needs are to be analysed. Referring to the growing number of vehicles in the city, he said if all the available vehicles are parked in Hyderabad at a time, there will not be any space left for people to live, which is known as a ‘gridlock’ phenomena and such a situation should be avoided.
Citing instances of severe traffic jams, Rao mentioned examples of Uppal to city while coming from Warangal; LB Nagar to city while coming from Vijayawada and then the Punjagutta-Ameerpet stretch of road. “Because of PV Narasimha Rao Express Highway, reaching airport from the city became an easy task,” he said.
On the same lines, in other parts of the city too people should not feel traffic congestion, the CM said, adding that all roads leading to different districts from Hyderabad should be made free of traffic congestion.
“Bangkok, which had suffered the worst, constructed super highways which could be experimented with here in Hyderabad also,” Rao opined. The CM asked the LEA to first identify high density corridors of Hyderabad and measure their length and come out with a plan. Rao asked them to identify places where large number of people travel every day and prioritise them.
Rao said the immediate focus for development of roads should be GHMC area and ultimately the HMDA area. “Regulating timings for different activities to reduce traffic congestion also to be studied,” Rao said.
Referring to Rajiv Rahadari, Rao said it a lifeline to North Telangana and it needs to be improved.
The CM also said several national and international companies are coming forward to develop Hyderabad and invest here.