Hyderabad: Waterlogged trenches at Shivrampally give harrowing time to commuters

Rajendranagar: In the absence of proper planning by the GHMC before taking up infrastructure projects on city outskirts, passengers, specially in Rajendranagar, are facing hardships while travelling. Trenches on wayside of road at Shivrampally are causing severe inconvenience to the road users, specially during rain.

The GHMC planned a grade separator from the Zoo Park to Aram Ghar at a cost of Rs.636.8 crore under the Strategic Road Development Programme (SRDP). The works were grounded in September 2021. Interestingly, the bridge work was taken up even before completing the Bahadurpura bridge, standing just a stone throw away from the Zoo Park-Aram Ghar bridge.

According to official statistics, which always contradict with officials' narrative, the 4.5-km-long grade separator will have 119 piers from the Zoo Park to Aram Ghar. It was planned to be completed by 2023. The six-lane grade separator is said to have six down ramps of 180 meters and eight up ramps of 240 meters to help commuters move up and down before reaching their destination.

To pave the way for the project, the GHMC initiated road-widening work with deep excavation, specially at a narrow stretch of Shivrampally that left the area with several feet deep trenches wayside on the stretch making it completely inconvenient for passengers to follow the course.

As road-widening works were taken up just before the monsoon, most trenches and ditches on the unparalleled road were filled with rainwater. The consistent showers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday turned drenches into cesspools alongside the road resulting in traffic congestion on the stretch.

On Monday supervisory staff found pumping out clogged water from drenches to water tanks using power pump motors at Shivrampally. Passengers were found facing great difficulty while crossing the stretch from the National Police Academy to Madarsa Dar-ul-Uloom on the busy National Highway-44.

As the flyover work is moving at a snail's pace, local people felt that monsoon may cause more trouble to commuters in days to come. Lots of bridge works are yet to be completed as only a few piers were so far raised on the stretch mainly at Shivrampally, while deep excavation work continues to remain. "Most trenches dug up recently are filled with rainwater. They may cause an unprecedented delay in execution of the bridge work. Hope the situation at the Zoo Park-Aram Ghar bridge will not see the same fate as the Bahadurpura bridge project that was dragged beyond the deadline more than twice," felt Syed Shoukat Ali, a community activist.