There is a major change in the plan to construct a Road under Bridge (RuB) at the Tukaram Gate railway crossing near Lalaguda local railway station. Instead of the proposed two lane RuB, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has come out with a fresh four-lane design.
Engineer-in-Chief R. Dhan Singh said the change had become necessary when it was observed that the road development plan for reaching the level crossing was 80 ft wide.
“If we had gone ahead with the two lane RuB, the variation between the road width and the structure would have become another traffic bottleneck. Therefore, despite obtaining the consent of South Central Railway (SCR) authorities, we have sounded them about making it a four-lane one,” he explained.
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The municipal corporation will have to take care of providing the right of way leading to the proposed RuB by acquiring private properties on either side of the crossing, lay the road, footpaths and provide storm water drains. SCR on its part will be construct the RuB with its ‘box technology’.
Road stretches on both sides is anywhere between 20 ft & 40 ft at different sites and about 37 properties on the Marredpally side and 11 properties towards the Secunderabad side are identified for acquisition.
Cost of the project too rose from Rs.14 crore and is likely to be around Rs.22 crore including meeting the SCR cost for RuB construction.
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Gates are closed pretty frequently at the level crossing and vehicles are at a standstill because of the constant movement of the trains including express trains, local trains and goods wagons. The narrow approach roads also add to the commuter woes.
The previous Mayor B. Kartika Reddy sought construction of either a RoB or an RuB at the site as the road connects Marredpally and Malkajgiri without touching Mettuguda thus avoiding the busy Sangeet-Tarnaka road.
GHMC appointed a consultant which had recommended the RuB considering the rails embankment.
Building a RoB will mean more properties to be acquired and one arm will then reach an existing RoB at the railway quarters.
According to the new plan, it will be four lane carriageway, 5.5 metres of service roads on both sides, 1.5 metre of footpath width both for the service road and underpass, box portion will be 40 metres within the railway portion and 10 metres beyond the railway portion with a vertical clearance of 4.5 metres.
Superintending Engineer R. Sridhar stated that the project estimates and General Arrangement Drawing (GAD) plans will be sent to the South Central Railway officials soon for approval.