HYDERABAD: Long gone are the days when travelling from one place to another in the twin cities was a herculean task due to traffic snarls at every junction. The Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP), a flagship programme of the State government, has changed the way people travel in the capital city. The government initiatives to boost road infrastructure and address long-pending traffic problems are yielding positive results. Among many initiatives that transformed Hyderabad, the SRDP can be considered a prominent one.
The State government formulated the SRDP a few years back for improving basic amenities in Hyderabad, for safe driving and improving traffic monitoring facilities, minimising travel time, increasing journey speed and in turn reducing air pollution levels.The comprehensive strategy is aimed at not only reducing traffic woes, but also creating infrastructure for future traffic needs in the city.
Along with developing infrastructure to decongest the city, the main roads were restored under the Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme (CRMP). To further reduce traffic density on main roads, new link roads have been developed. The city’s roads have undergone vast change after SRDP was taken up by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Apart from the cable-stayed bridge at Madhapur, the authorities have managed to construct 22 flyovers, underpasses, RoBs and RuBs at different parts of the city.
From flyovers to underpasses, grade separators, major corridors and road over bridges, the strategy behind SRDP has reduced traffic congestion in several major corridors, apart from reducing travel time between several places. The SRDP was intended to cover major corridors and activity centres such as Jubilee Hills, HiTec City, Kukatpally, Panjagutta, Abids, Bachupally, Charminar, LB Nagar, Chandrayangutta, Secunderabad, Uppal, ECIL, Alwal, Kompally and Jeedimetla.
The GHMC’s efforts to decongest key junctions have helped ease traffic flow. Flyovers, underpasses and grade separators constructed in different areas have erased long traffic snarls in many places such as Panjagutta, Madhapur, Mind Space, Gachibowli, Jubilee Hills, Hitec City and Biodiversity Junction etc.
The officials are hopeful that the programme will help Hyderabad become a city of flyovers after Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. As part of the plan, nearly 20 flyovers have been proposed under the SRDP. While the construction of a few of them have already been completed and thrown open to public, works on the remaining are underway.
A `29K-crore programme
Officials sources told Express that the SRDP was formulated at an estimated cost of `29,695 crore. Based on the flow of funds, with minimal land acquisition, SRDP works have been prioritised and the amount required is being provided by the GHMC by mobilising funds through floating of bonds and obtaining term loans.
Under the SRDP, flyovers and grade separators will come up at 54 junctions, apart from elevated corridor/skyways (135 km), major corridor development (166 km), major road development (348 km).
They said the mid and long-term strategies adopted by the State government are yielding good results and more results are expected in a matter of few months. The major attraction under SRDP is the iconic Durgam Cheruvu Cable-Stayed Bridge at Madhapur, near Inorbit Mall, which stands as World’s Longest Span Concrete Deck Extradosed Cable Stayed Bridge, built at an estimated cost of `184 crore.
The iconic structure connects the happening areas of HiTec City and Financial District with other parts of the city, apart from relieving congestion on Jubilee Hills Road No 36 and Madhapur Road. It also reduced the distance between Jubilee Hills and Mind Space and Gachibowli by two km.
With an aesthetically pleasing lighting system, first-of-its-kind carriageway lighting, the bridge is now a major recreational and tourist attraction. Although, the project involved meticulous planning and coordination with various International accredited firms based in USA, Europe, Russia, Hong Kong, keeping in view of the Make in India campaign, the bridge was purely designed and constructed under EPC mode by L&T-HCIC.