The long-pending knotty issue of a severe traffic bottleneck in front of St. Anthony’s Church at Mettuguda has successfully been resolved by Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) authorities. With the help of the South Central Railways (SCR) and consent of the minority community, the structure was shifted from the centre of the road to a piece of railway land opposite the church, after several rounds of discussions over the last few months, said HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy on Sunday.
A couple of dilapidated structures obstructing the traffic flow in the vicinity was demolished and a high tension electric cable junction box on the ground level was lowered further into the ground by a few feet for a smooth carriageway. The road is being widened by about 30 feet opposite the church by levelling the strip of land acquired from Railways for a length of about 370 feet, he said.
This will facilitate barricading for metro rail pillars so that not only stage one of the project between Nagole and Mettuguda (8 km) can be completed as per schedule, but the line too can be taken forward towards Secunderabad railway station and beyond without any major hurdles, pointed out Mr. Reddy.
Demolition work
The HMR Managing Director specifically thanked SCR officials including the just retired GM Asthana and minority community leaders for their cooperation in clearing the obstacles. Another major demolition work will be the 20 GVM (government vested municipal) properties in Erragadda to widen NH 9 in Maqbara/Rythu Bazar area with GHMC’s help to remove another traffic bottleneck.
Once cleared, it will enable L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) to go ahead with stage two construction phase between Miyapur and Ameerpet. With large-scale road widening of NH-9 in Miyapur-SR Nagar and LB Nagar-Malakpet (New Market) stretches, metro works of corridor one are going on in full swing from both Miyapur and LB Nagar ends, he explained.
