A resident of Erragadda, Rajesh Kumar works in a hardware store at Kukatpally. Though a few kilometres distance to cover, he usually ends up spending at least half-an-hour caught in traffic to reach his workplace each day.
“The traffic has increased terribly in the last few years on this stretch and the problem is compounded with delays in road widening at the Moosapet junction,” he says.
Part of the national highway, this stretch is one of the busiest corridors leading out of the city and the delays in widening the road near Moosapet for the Metro Rail project is resulting in long traffic snarls at regular intervals.
Traffic that comes from the Erragadda flyover and Bharatnagar along with the vehicles taking a u-turn at the junction ends up in a jam, more particularly during rush hours.
The GHMC officials concede that the road widening works here were mired in delays due to various problems, including the usual issue of land acquisition.
“The work has slowed down due to delays in acquisition of properties from Moosapet till the circle, which we are pursuing and hope to attend at the earliest,” a senior official said. Another official put the number of properties still to be acquired for speeding up the road widening work here as 32.
Apart from land acquisition, the GHMC also has other issues to handle such as relocating few places of worship.
“We are aware of the traffic problems here and our officers are working at hastening up the process to complete at the earliest,” the official added.