Responding to irked residents in Secunderabad's cantonment area, Telangana Chief Secretary S K Joshi on Friday held a meeting with a committee comprising of defence and civil officials and said that a proposal would be submitted in 15 days.
The meeting was held at the Secretariat and the committee will be submitting alignment proposals for construction of flyovers and roads as an alternative to Gough Road.
The issue of road closure has been a long-standing one between civilians and the Army. In 2015, the Army had closed down the arterial roads, citing security concerns. However, after pleas from several local leaders and the municipal body, they gave a deadline to create an alternate road which kept extending from 2016 to 2017, as the roads hadn’t been laid yet.
Though the roads are now open for public, nonetheless, the restrictions on civilians continue to prevail. Vehicles will not be allowed from 10 pm to 7 am, except for ambulances.
Recently, in the Rajya Sabha, replying to the query of the status of the closure of the Cantonment roads, the Minister of State for Defence, Subash Bhamre, said that the Cantonment roads will be closed from May 30, 2018, as per the deadline announced earlier.
However, the state government is likely to ask for another six-month extension to lay the alternate roads.
Speaking at the meeting with committee members, the Chief Secretary said that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had already prepared alternate road proposals and a detailed project report (DPR).
Among those present were Telangana and Andhra sub-area general officer Commanding Major General N Srinivasa Rao, MAUD Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar, R&B Principal Secretary Sunil Sharma, Medchal District Collector M V Reddy and GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy.
Meanwhile, The Federation of North Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad deemed the road closure 'illegal' and demanded that they be reopened.
“On humanitarian grounds also, these road closures are unacceptable as they affect the daily routine of several lakh people and impose financial, mental and physical costs on them without any fault of theirs. No security threat can justify the permanent closure of tens of kilometres of roads in the heart of the country’s 5th largest metropolis which were in continuous use by the public continuously for over a century, ripping apart connectivity for the public,” the federation said in a statement.
The closure of roads affects hundreds of residents living in areas abutting the AOC like Marredpally, Neredmet, Anandbagh, Yapral, Sainikpuri, Safilguda and Ammuguda, among several others.