The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), which is in the process of giving finishing touches to the fifth intermediate ramp for the 11.5-km-long P.V. Narasimha Rao Elevated Expressway, plans to open the connectivity in the first week of February.
More than four years after throwing open to traffic what is considered the longest elevated expressway of the country, the authorities have now been able to ready the fifth ramp, dropping down from the facility at Aramgarh. Though a total of six intermediate ramps, three sets of up-and-down ramps at Upparapally, Aramgarh and Lakshminagar were proposed at the outset, various factors including shifting of utilities, land acquisition and relocation of a place of worship have been delaying the proposal.
Smooth connectivity
In the last four years, four ramps were opened for vehicular traffic to either join or drive down from the elevated expressway and now one more is getting ready.
“We are in the last phases of completing work on the down ramp at Aramgarh and hope to finish it by the month-end and open it early next month,” an official with HMDA said.
The new ramp, when opened for traffic, would allow smooth connectivity for vehicles taking the elevated expressway from Mehdipatnam side and intending to get down at Aramgarh for moving towards Bahadurpura or take the inner ring road to further drive down towards Vijayawada road.
The fate of the sixth ramp proposed at Lakshminagar, however, continues to remain uncertain given long-pending issues like land acquisition and shifting of a place of worship.
Meanwhile, the elevated expressway which was left neglected and not swept on a regular basis for long is now being attended to by the sanitation wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
The HMDA, which set up the facility, does not have the required equipment or manpower to have it swept daily and after much persuasion and intervention of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the civic body has finally taken up the sanitation responsibility.
The GHMC has also agreed to take up the maintenance of illumination and street-lighting on the facility from HMDA, added the official.
