In a major relief to scores of commuters travelling on the busy Begumpet road every day, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has finally decided to remove two major traffic bottlenecks on Friday.
Equipped with an excavator, the municipal officials took possession of the front portion of Aladdin building (near Shoppers’ Stop) after managing to tide over legal battles, which were on for more than a decade. The building is among the heritage structures listed by the government.
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The Heritage Committee had long ago given its consent to hand over the open space for road widening purpose.
“We had the official sanction, but the owners kept creating hurdles. Over the years, we managed to tide over all the problems,” said a senior municipal official.
All through the day and into the night, the municipal staff were seen working though traffic was initially hit. “The open space is about 550 sq yards and we are most likely to get about 50 ft of road space. It will provide the much needed leeway to traffic movement as the 150-ft stretch gets almost halved as it reaches the site. We will start laying the road soon,” explained GHMC Assistant City Planner (Circle 18) V. Prasad.
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The municipal corporation also managed to take over two floors of Jabbar building, adjacent to Aladdin building, that avoided demolition for many years.
The three-storied structure has several shops with multiple owners.
The ACP said the first and second floors of the building were taken over and demolition work would begin soon.
At present, negotiations are on with other inhabitants on the ground floor.
The GHMC official was confident that the talks would be fruitful and the building would make way to a thoroughfare wide enough to prevent frequent traffic disruptions as metro rail piers are about to be laid at the site.