Hyderabad’s SCB road to be widened

In Hyderabad, the Army has given its green signal for widening of roads in SCB area by agreeing to give away its land to the road works. Earlier, the Army was blamed for blocking development in SCB. But Andhra Sub-Area General Officer Commanding Major General Cyrus Addie Pithawala differs and says the Army is pro-development. He has been proved correct. The Army, which had refused to part with the land under its control, has finally agreed for widening of roads nearly eight years after the project was mooted.

Hyderabad’s eight main roads that connect surrounding municipalities with the core city via Cantonment are narrow, with the carriage way shrinking to 20 feet at some of the stretches while the remaining stretches are not more than 40 feet wide. Every day, lakhs motorists use the Cantonment roads and with increasing vehicles, traffic congestion has become the order of the day.

Though designs were also prepared for road widening by experts from JNTU, and HMDA was supposed to widen the roads for SCB eight years ago, the project could not be executed for want of 26 acres of Army land. The Army has already given nearly 2 km of ‘Right of Way’ (RoW) for Hyderabad Metro Rail.