Five flyover, underpass works along 15-km stretch leave over 5 lakh commuters battling traffic on Mumbai Highway
With construction work on for four flyovers and an underpass on a 15-kilometre stretch of the Mumbai Highway (NH-65), more than five lakh commuters travelling
With construction work on for four flyovers and an underpass on a 15-kilometre stretch of the Mumbai Highway (NH-65), more than five lakh commuters travelling through one of Telangana’s busiest industrial corridors are contending with daily bottlenecks, diversions and shrinking road space. The traffic is affected on the corridor from ICRISAT, near BHEL Township to Ganesh Gadda, where flyovers are being built at Isnapur X roads, Lakdaram junction, Rudraram and Ismailkhanpet, along with an underpass at Novopan junction. At Novopan junction, construction of retaining walls for the vehicle underpass has gathered pace and the carriageways on either side have been closed and traffic diverted onto temporary two-lane service roads measuring only about eight to 10 metres in width. Vehicles travelling from the ORR and Sangareddy towards Patancheru are being routed through the left-side service road from Pocharam Kaman up to Patancheru Vegetable Market Road before rejoining NH-65. Traffic in the opposite direction is being diverted from Incor Lake City Apartments up to Ramky Infra Tower before merging back onto the highway.
The stretch in Patancheru, now under Cyberabad police commissionerate, serves as a critical artery linking Hyderabad with Sangareddy and further towards Maharashtra and Karnataka, while also supporting daily movement to some of State’s largest industrial clusters. Traffic police estimate that over 5 lakh commuters use the corridor every day. This includes around 2 lakh employees in the pharmaceutical and manufacturing units located in IDA Patancheru and IDA Pashamylaram. School and college buses and heavy goods vehicles transporting raw materials and finished products form another major share of traffic of traffic on the road. More than one lakh migrant workers residing in localities such as Isnapur and Chitkul and employed in brick kilns, construction sites and smaller industrial establishments also use the corridor. The resulting mix of industrial traffic, employee transport, educational institution buses and freight movement leaves little room for traffic absorption when lanes are reduced for construction activity. Patancheru Traffic Inspector Ashok said the simultaneous execution of multiple projects have created traffic management challenges.
“We have less staff and more works happening here. About 20 personnel are managing this stretch, with around 10 members deployed in each shift,” he said. According to him, Novopan and Isnapur remain the most congested locations while other pressure points include the Sri Siddhi Vinayaka Temple area in Rudraram, which witnesses significant daily footfall, and Muthangi near ORR exit 3, where residential and commercial traffic continues to grow. Patancheru Inspector G. Vinayak Reddy said traffic congestion is severe between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and again from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. when industrial employees travel to and from work, necessitating the deployment of law and order personnel alongside traffic police and marshals. Officials estimated that commuters experience delays ranging from 15 to 30 minutes on most days. “I preferred driving to work, but with the ongoing construction, I have switched to the company bus.. After crossing Patancheru, there is still the IT traffic to deal with before I reach home in Chandanagar,” said R.
The BriefWire