Raj Bhavan-Fatehnagar slip road work taken up

The Raj Bhavan-Fatehnagar slip road alongside the Hussainsagar lake via the Necklace Road MMTS station and the Park Hotel, which was to decongest the Punjagutta and Somajiguda roads, almost a forgotten project for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), has received a fresh lease of life.

In the last few days, the Town Planning Department has begun to make road marking for constructing the road at least till the culvert point.

And, from there, the road is to be taken towards Brahmanwadi where it will be crossing the railway line with the help of a road under bridge that has to be built by the South Central Railway (SCR).

Senior municipal officials said that some of the properties located in a slum on the way have to be acquired before the 4-km road is taken to its logical end via the Methodist Colony where it has to be connected to the Balkampet-Fatehnagar slip road built on the Begumpet ‘nala’ – stormwater drain.

Central fund

The project was initially proposed in the late ’90s by the erstwhile MCH and it also got Rs.45-crore fund from the Central government under the Mega City Development Plan.

It got held up due to opposition from the residents and also the Supreme Court Environment Monitoring Committee raising fears over the lakebed being converted into the road.

A sum of Rs.22 crore was already spent for completing the second half of the project i.e. Begumpet to Fatehnagar-Balkampet across the stormwater drain beneath the Begumpet flyover.

The first half of the road from Raj Bhavan-Brahmanwadi is to be connected to the second half by opening vents under the flyover, senior officials pointed out.

Once completed, commuters going towards Secunderabad or Fatehnagar can avoid the busy Ameerpet-Punjagutta road, they added.