Addressing a long-pending issue, the Telangana government and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) announced that they would construct a steel bridge to improve the movement of traffic near Chutneys in Panjagutta, next to a graveyard.
“The Hyderabad Traffic Police have identified a major traffic bottleneck at Chutneys in Panjagutta, which is causing lot of traffic jams during peak hours and it has requested GHMC to take up the road widening work. Further, it is noticed that as per the accident report of the years 2016 and 2017 submitted by the Traffic Police, the Panjagutta graveyard is a frequent accident occurring ‘Black Spot’ area,” the GHMC said in a press release.
Stating that close to 5,000 vehicles use the stretch during peak hours, the GHMC said that a 4-lane road was recommended to ensure smooth flow of traffic without any jams.
“The existing carriage way width at bottleneck (Graveyard) is around 5.50 meters (One and a half lanes), which is grossly inadequate to cope with peak hour traffic. Expert teams from GHMC and traffic police have inspected the site and considered the following two proposals to solve the problem,” the GHMC said.
While one proposal involved the widening of the road, while the second involved construction of low-level steel plate girder bridge over the graveyard, with a span of 35 metres without disturbing the graves.
“After detailed discussions and negotiations, the graveyard committee has agreed for the second proposal. Hence, an estimate is prepared for construction of steel plate girder bridge, at an estimate of Rs 5.95 crore,” the GHMC said.
Stating that the Standing Committee of GHMC had accorded the administrative sanction to rectify the ‘black spot’, the municipal body also said that tenders for the work had been called.
“The work will be started shortly and is expected to completed by the end of this year. With the completion of this work, a major bottleneck in Hyderabad city will be cleared, giving relief to traffic in the Panjagutta-Banjara Hills corridor,” the GHMC added.