Development of alternate roads to Gough Road and Ordnance Road has been put off indefinitely as a survey of lands that need to be acquired has been put on hold.
According to sources in the GHMC, its engineering team was not allowed to survey in Ramakrishnapuram due to the presence of installation of an army battalion. The GHMC wrote a letter on Tuesday to the Local Military Authority seeking permission to resume the survey process. Currently, the GHMC officials are surveying the Safilguda railway gate-Ramakrishnapuram stretch for last one month.
“We have completed almost 90% of the survey on this route. We have been told to take permission to survey the remaining area as the army has important properties there. Though the entire area belongs to the army and we have been permitted to survey, there are certain locations for which we require special permission. Once our request is accepted, we can complete the survey within two to three weeks,” said a senior engineer of GHMC involved in the process. It was not clear to the GHMC when it can expect the permission.
The 10-acre area that GHMC has been surveying is to eventually develop a 1.7-km road with a width of 60 feet. According to officials, through the Detailed Project Report (DPR ) which will be submitted to the State Government soon it will be conveyed that the land area is enough to substitute for the routes to be closed. Surveying for alternate route on Safilguda Railway Gate-Mahendra Hills stretch was completed last year.
The AOC administration proposed to close the AOC to civilian traffic movement and has deployed phased closing of the roads. Consequently, the Mornington Road that connects Gough Road to Trimulgherry was closed. The AOC Centre itself is closed between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. for civilian traffic movement. The Gough Road is proposed for closure next.
“There are a few challenges before the Government. The hilly locations between Safilguda and Mahendra Hills will escalate the costs. In the second route for which the survey is going on there are army quarters as obstruction. It has to be seen if the compensation has to be paid for clearing them to develop a road,” said another senior official of the GHMC.
The State Government is yet to decide on the land parcels that will be handed over to the Army in return for the proposed 34 acres that will be used to develop new routes.
