Hyderabad: The Army is ready to transfer land for an alternative route following closure of its roads to the public and might also extend the deadline to close Gough Road to December 1 if the civic authorities come forward and execute the route plan.
Till date, two letters have been notified to the state government — on September 25 and October 9 — regarding the closure of Gough Road, but the GHMC commissioner and Telangana chief secretary are yet to respond, said GOC Major-General Sharab Pachory.
On Friday, the Army had a meeting with the Resi-dents Welfare Association (RWAs) on the internal roads closure issue wherein representatives of over 32 RWAs attended. B.T. Srinivas, president of Malkajgiri RWA, said, “Brigadier Dalip Singh explained the High Court’s direction on the AOC restrictions and the recent ministry of defence orders on closure of Army roads in a phased manner. The letters written to chief secretary Rajiv Sharma and GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar, intimating the Army’s desire to work with the civic and state administration for finding a solution to closure of roads, were also shown to us.”
The AOC commandant also referred to the meeting held at the Secretariat between additional director of ministry of defence, J.R.K. Rao, who was deputed by defence minister Manohar Parrikar, and the chief secretary and GHMC commissioner in September. In that meeting the Army had expressed its willingness to transfer defence land for an alternative road.
As per the AOC commandant, no communication has been received so far from the GHMC.
V.K. Mahesh, a resident of Safigudda, said, “GOC, Major General Sharab Pachory, informed RWAs that the Army would close Gough Road from December 1 and other AOC roads in a phased manner. He said that they were ready to work with local authorities in identifying a suitable solution to the road closure by finding an alternative road plan for developing roads. The GOC expressed the Army’s willingness to sort out this issue and requested RWAs to negotiate with local authorities to find a permanent solution.”
A decision on the action plan once Gough Road is closed is likely to be taken on Saturday following a meeting with the TS chief secretary and RWAs.
