Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation's (GHMC's) junction improvement programme, which was started five years ago to ease traffic congestions at busy intersections in the state capital, is going on at a snail’s pace, much to the chagrin of millions of road users.
The corporation embarked on the junction improvement programme in 2016 to improvise 111 traffic junctions spread across the city at a cost of Rs 50 crore and set the target of six months to complete the works. However, even after completing five years, the civic body was not able to complete 50 per cent of its target.
The GHMC earlier decided to improve 42 major junctions and 69 minor junctions in six months. The corporation officials divided the junctions into three categories. The programme was taken up after examining several sophisticated roads across the globe. About 42 major junctions would have pedestrian refuge islands, provision for specially-abled to travel on footpaths in their wheelchairs, road markings to indicate directions, RCC blocks, wide free lefts and other advanced systems. The corporation also wanted to ensure that the junction improvement programme would not affect future projects as part of Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP).
As proposed, the first category junction improvement programme was to be taken up at Koti, Kavadiguda, West Marredpally, Sangeet Signal, Chaderghat, Radhika Junction, Liberty Junction, Himayath Nagar Junction, Kothaguda Junction, Imax Junction and others. These junctions do not have any hurdles like land acquisition and space constraints. The second category junction improvement programmes include, a junction near Koti Women's College, Chhey Number, Ali Cafe, CTO Junction, Putlibowli, Barkatpura and Osmania Medical College. In order to improve the junctions, the corporation has to acquire land from other departments. And in the third category, the GHMC would improve 14 junctions and plan to acquire land worth Rs 25 crore from private agencies.
Officials claimed that the corporation would complete the first two categories by December 2016 and the third category by May 2017. However, the GHMC could manage to achieve only 50 per cent of its target in the long span of five years.
A senior GHMC official, requesting anonymity, said the junction improvement programme was never a priority for the corporation. He said fund and staff crunch delayed the project. "For five years, we have been fighting for funds for flagship programmes like SRDP and 2BHK housing for urban poor. The corporation has been struggling with mega projects to deliver them on time," the official said. He also said that now as the junction improvement programme had been handed over to private agencies under the comprehensive road development plan (CRMP), the corporation had no clue about its current status.
