Hyderabad: Wait gets longer as JNTU-Malaysian Township flyover misses deadline again

HYDERABAD: Will 2019 finally see the opening of Rajiv Gandhi flyover stretching from JNTU to Malaysian Township, which has been waiting for completion since 2016? Though authorities had promised to open the flyover by March last year, then postponed it to September and later to December, the SRDP officials have missed each deadline causing severe inconvenience to commuters. GHMC projects wing now aims to open the flyover by February 15.

The 1.23 km long flyover starts near Manjeera mall and goes up to Malaysian Township allowing commuters heading to Hitec  City skip the traffic intersection at Forum Mall. The project is budgeted around `65 crore.

However,  since its inception, the work has been slow paced and shoddy,  allege commuters. “The traffic in the stretch was always chaotic as the existing road was reduced to nothing.  The sides of the road have been dug up leading to further decrease in the carriageway.  To add to this, there is no sign of completion of the flyover,’’ Vidyasagar Jagadeeshan, a regular commuter, said.

Though there are multiple alternative routes, they are ridden with potholes and damages making the entire network of road inaccessible, so much so that people opt to take 4-5 km detour from Lingampally to reach Hitec City.

Many commuters say that even if the flyover sees completion, it will offer no relief, as the flyover missed covering the crucial rythu market between JNTU and Manjeera. “This is a major traffic point. So even after the flyover is completed, the commuters will still see traffic in this stretch,” S Satish Reddy, Kukatpally Congress president, who has protested at the site multiple times.

However,  the GHMC officials maintain that the flyover would finally be opened by Feb 15.  “The project was delayed because of traffic restrictions. We were not permitted to work in the morning hours and allowed only from 10 pm to 6 am  to complete the work, but even then there was a lot of traffic in the area,” a GHMC official remarked.

The crucial road sees a traffic rush of 14,000 PCU (passenger car unit) which is similar to Mindspace junction which got a flyover in 16 months.