Banjara Hills Road No. 12 Residents Oppose Road Widening

Hyderabad: Several residents of the Banjara Hills Welfare Association have opposed the proposed widening of Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, from 80 feet to 100 feet, citing lack of footfall, loss of livelihood and the absence of parking facilities in several commercial establishments along the stretch.

“Many buildings here don’t have parking. Even if the road is widened, vehicles will still be parked on the road, defeating the purpose of the project,” said a resident. Residents claimed that the livelihood of nearly 3,000 people would be directly or indirectly affected.

The association said it had hired a consultant, who suggested three alternative options. Two of them were infrastructure solutions that would cost less than the land acquisition required for widening Road No. 12 — from Virinchi Hospital to Agrasen crossroads. One option included extending a link road near the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), Banjara Hills, and creating multiple parallel lanes.

“According to the GHMC, the bottlenecks are Virinchi crossroads and Agrasen crossroad. If so, to decongest them, infrastructure should be developed around these junctions. Even if this road is widened, traffic will still halt at the junctions,” said another resident.

Residents also alleged that the widening proposal was taken up without a Social Impact Assessment and an Environmental Impact Assessment. “The notices were not served properly. Some were even issued in the names of deceased persons,” said a member of the welfare association. Following this, the court issued a stay on the works.

The GHMC is proceeding with the widening as per the Master Plan 2010, where the expansion of Road No. 12 is listed as a planned urban transport improvement.

According to the consultant hired by the association, a bidirectional flyover from Masab Tank towards Panjagutta via Road No. 1, Banjara Hills could resolve the bottleneck.

Another unidirectional flyover from the crematorium (starting after the crematorium exit) in Banjara Hills towards Masab Tank would also address future traffic,” said a resident. “These two projects are a permanent solution,” he added.

Residents further suggested that creating new parallel lanes and bylanes from the area adjacent to BRS Bhavan — via the nala beside the ICCC Building — and connecting them to Roads No. 12, 10, 13 and 1 will ease congestion. They noted that a similar proposal had earlier been put forward by GHMC to connect Minister Quarters to Road No. 11.

According to GHMC officials, the widening of Road No. 12 is a component of the Master Plan 2010 drafted by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA). “We are only the execution agency and we will follow court orders,” a GHMC official said.