Hyderabad: Blatant violations in the design of the Biodiversity level two flyover by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has resulted in two accidents and three deaths in a span of three weeks.
On Saturday, a speeding car travelling on the newly-opened Biodiversity flyover lost control and fell off the bridge, damaging two cars on the road beneath. A woman was killed, while six others were injured in the incident. Though civic authorities claimed that the flyover design was as per norms, road transport experts said that there are various faults in the design. The three lane, 990 metre flyover has a steep curve at 500 metres while passing the through Khajaguda junction to Mindspace junction.
According to Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines, the three lanes should maintain 3.5 metre x 3.5 metre width. Further, at steep curves, in order to prevent accidents, a width of 3.5 x 5.5 should be maintained. However, these vital parameters were compromised by the civic authorities due to land acquisition issues. Prof K. Lakshman Rao, director, centre of excellence on disaster management, JNTUH college of engineering, Hyderabad, and road transport expert, found fault with the design of the flyover which has several geometrical issues. Rao said that due to the intersection of a vertical and horizontal curve and asymmetric radius of inner and outer curve, road accidents are bound to happen.
Rao pointed out that the height of the parapet wall was not up to the mark. He said that though the IRC guidelines suggest a 1.5 metres to two metres parapet wall, since several other parameters were compromised, the height should be raised to at least four meters to give confidence to commuters.
Highly placed sources in the engineering wing of GHMC told Deccan Chronicle that it was not the fault of commuters that they travel beyond the speed limit. They said that psychologically, commuters who take the flyover have to travel in hour-long traffic snarls from Mehdipatnam. By instinct, any commuter after fighting heavy traffic, would speed up and authorities have to set limits.
The per hour vehicular traffic during non-peak hours is 6,000 and non peak hours is 12,000. The statement was endorsed by the MAUD minister, K.T. Rama Rao, who tweeted: “Speed limit on the flyover is 40 kmph and it's clearly shown in sign boards. The car that lost control was driving at over 100 kmph, way beyond prescribed speed limit. Nevertheless, innocent bystander's death is tragic. We will rectify any design issues too to prevent recurrence”(sic).
