Hyderabad: The travel time from Toli Chowki to the IT hub at Gachibowli will be reduced drastically once the 7.5-km stretch is developed into an expressway (ground-level, not elevated) with service roads on either side for local traffic.
Thousands of motorists, mainly techies, use this road to go to their offices in Gachibowli and Hitec City and return home towards Begumpet, Secunderabad, Alwal, Kapra and Cantonment areas.
Currently, it takes 45 minutes to an hour to commute the stretch during peak hours as the road narrows at Toli Chowki and at Dargah Junction near the Raidurg traffic police outpost.
“We switch off the signals and regulate the vehicular traffic manually. The traffic is more from Toli Chowki to Gachibowli from 8 am to 12.30 pm, and from 5.30 pm to 9.15 pm in the opposite direction. Often, we see only one person in a car and thousands of such cars pass through this road. They are all IT employees,” said traffic constable P. Jangaiah.
Secretary of IT, ITeS AP Association Bipin Pendyal, said techies spend unproductive time of over an hour only to drive to their offices. “If one has to keep changing gears and use the clutch, brake and accelerator with the vehicle moving at 15 to 25 km per hour, the person driving gets exhausted and stressed,” he said, adding that the upgradation of the road into an expressway would give techies more time for productive matters.
The civic body needs 215 properties on the 7.5-km stretch to widen it to 215 feet from the Dargah Junction to Cyberabad, and up to 150 feet uniform width from Toli Chowki to the junction.
This width was decided after detailed traffic studies and projected traffic volume up to 2020 was taken into consideration. At present, the road is 70 to 80 feet at some stretches and narrows down to less than 40 feet at certain points.
GHMC engineer-in-chief R. Dhan Singh said the expressway project would help vehicles cover the 7.5-km in 10 to 15 minutes.
“It will be developed at a cost of nearly Rs 30 crore. About 20-foot service roads on each side of the expressway will be developed. There will be cycle tracks on either side of the road, each 7-foot wide, followed by footpaths with storm water drains beneath,” he said, adding that works on acquisition of properties had already begun and that the development of the expressway would take more than a year.
Opposition likely to delay flyover at Toli Chowki
Hyderabad: The construction of the flyover at Toli Chowki junction is likely to be delayed as traders and owners of commercial establishments, who had been opposing the acquisition of their properties, have got a stay order from the court.
Though the GHMC had started construction works and had raised 10 pillars, traders and building owners are demanding that the route and the design of the flyover be changed to avoid acquisition of their properties. The GHMC has filed a counter in the court to vacate the stay.
“Acquisition of properties can be avoided if the flyover is constructed to go over the shrines located in the middle of the road at Toli Chowki junction. In the consultation meetings organised by the GHMC, we had demanded the same, but the Corporation went ahead with its plans to construct it by the side. The court has given a stay order on the acquisition of some properties. We’ll also ask it to direct the GHMC to change the flyover’s design,” said Masood Ahmed, general secretary, Toli Chowki Owners’ Association.
The GHMC is building the flyover at an estimated cost of about Rs 50 crore, including the compensation towards acquisition of properties. The state government has given administrative sanction for the project.
As per the approved design, the flyover will split at the point of the two religious structures, going by their sides, to rejoin later.
The project is being taken up to ease traffic congestion at the Toli Chowki junction.
According to M. Satyanarayana, a retail trader, the GHMC had given an assurance to the AP High Court that it would shift 648 religious structures from the main roads and other public places in a phased manner, and the two shrines at Toli Chowki junction were also on the list.
“When the GHMC has told the court that it will relocate them, why construct the flyover by the side,” he said, adding that there were also SC directions on relocation of religious structures.
The GHMC officials, meanwhile, said that the management committees of the two shrines had opposed the plan of the flyover going over the structures. As the issue was sensitive, the second option of splitting the flyover was taken.
“The flyover’s height will have to be raised if we construct it above the structures. This would increase both the cost and the length of the bridge. More properties would be affected due to this,” said another official, adding that they would adhere to the HC directions.
