Hyderabad: After nearly three decades, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had taken up repairs and restoration works on the Lalapet Road over Bridge (RoB), constructed across Secunderabad – Kazipet railway lines.
Constructed by the Roads & Buildings Department in the year 1990, the RoB was developed to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic from Tarnaka towards Lalapet and Moula Ali areas. With the presence of the Vijaya Dairy unit, South Central Railway units and soft drink manufacturing unit, the facility also has a high movement of heavy vehicles traffic.
Recently Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan during his inspection urged the officials to hurry up in works by deploying additional manpower to speed up the restoration work of the bridge.
However, with nearly three decades of service, the structure has started to develop a few snags and the restoration works were long due.
Complaints were also being made over the maintenance of the flyover. There have been instances of motorists complaining about vibrations and road surface getting peeled off and concerns on structure stability also being raised.
For these repairs and restoration work, the civic body has earmarked an amount of Rs 5.85 crore for repairs which include changing of the damaged bearings, fixing the expansion joints as per the prescribed rules and attending to the damaged portion of a few girders and had set a target of completing the works in three months.
In view of the restoration works, the traffic police have imposed some restrictions on the movement of vehicles on the four-lane RoB.
At present, only two and three-wheelers are being permitted from one end to the other on the two-lanes of the RoB and heavy vehicles like buses and trucks are being diverted to other routes. While vehicles are shuttling on the two lanes, simultaneously restoration works are being executed on the other two lanes.
However, the restoration work has not yet been completed as planned, which had started in May 2019 with a deadline of three months.
This delay is causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters as the rate of accidents has increased on the bridge and the traffic too.
“As only one lane is being used the vehicle movement is slow and is causing a lot of traffic,” said a traffic police official.
“At least two to three accidents happen every day on the bridge as there is less space for vehicles to move, On Both lanes of the bridge there are lots of potholes and gaps which are causing two-wheelers to skid easily and when it rains the situation gets worse.” Said M.Mallesh a resident of Lalapet.