Hyderabad roads to get facelift soon

​Hyderabad: The road network in the State capital, which is synonymous with bad roads, craters and regular traffic jams, would get a facelift and will be on par with international standards soon.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao who held a marathon meeting with the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao and civic officials on city roads on Wednesday, finalised an action plan entitled ‘integrated road development plan’ to improve the city road network in a phased manner in the next 4 -5 years.

He instructed the officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to conduct a comprehensive study on the status of the roads in coordination with the Indian Roads Congress and submit a report to the government at the earliest. He asked the officials to take up road development work as a pilot project on 100-km stretch first.

KCR expressed grave concern over poor road network, regular traffic jams and serious road damage during the rainy season. He felt that the negligence shown by the previous government was the result of the present status of bad road network in the city.

Stressing on the need to reconstruct all the road network to meet the future needs, the Chief Minister asked the officials to stop indiscriminate digging of the roads for laying pipelines, electric wires and other purposes by other departments. He wanted laying of four-lane and six-lane roads and also widen the footpaths for the convenience of pedestrians.

KCR told the officials to prepare new plans to ensure that there were no traffic jams at metro rail and flyover junctions during the peak hours. He also asked them to construct roads on either side of the Musi river. All the highways connecting the city roads should be promoted as expressways and they should be included in the ‘Integrated road development plan’, he said.

To ease the bus traffic congestion in the city bus stations, he proposed construction of new bus terminals on the outskirts of the city. Multi-level parking stations are also being planned. KCR expressed unhappiness on phase one metro rail works as it failed to cater to the needs of the city people.

He hoped the second phase metro plans would address all the issues. The representatives of Cements Manufacturing Association who were present at the meeting expressed their interest in joining in the government’s endeavour in strengthening the road network.