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Techies get expressway

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The travel time from Toli Chowki to the IT hub at Gachibowli will be reduced drastically once the 7.5 Km stretch is developed into an expressway (ground-level, not elevated) with service roads on either side for local traffic.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">Thousands of motorists, mainly techies, use this road to go to their offices in Gachibowli and Hitec City and return home towards Begumpet, Secunderabad, Alwal, Kapra and Cantonment areas.&nbsp;</span><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">Currently, it takes 45 minutes to an hour to commute the stretch during peak hours as the road narrows at Toli Chowki and at Dargah Junction near the Raidurg traffic police outpost.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">&ldquo;We switch off the signals and regulate the vehicular traffic manually. The traffic is more from Toli Chowki to Gachibowli from 8 am to 12.30 pm, and from 5.30 pm to 9.15 pm in the opposite direction. Often, we see only one person in a car and thousands of such cars pass through this road. They are all IT employees,&rdquo; said traffic constable P. Jangaiah.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Secretary of IT, ITeS AP Association Bipin Pendyal, said techies spend unproductive time of over an hour only to drive to their offices. &ldquo;If one has to keep changing gears and use the clutch, brake and accelerator with the vehicle moving at 15- 25 Km per hour, the person driving gets exhausted and stressed,&rdquo; he said, adding that the upgradation of the road into an expressway would give techies more time for productive matters.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The civic body needs 215 properties on the 7.5 Km stretch to widen it to 215 feet from the Dargah Junction to Cyberabad, and up to 150 feet uniform width from Toli Chowki to the junction.&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">This width was decided after detailed traffic studies and projected traffic volume up to 2020 was taken into consideration. At present, the road is 70 to 80 feet at some stretches and narrows down to less than 40 feet at certain points.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">GHMC engineer-in-chief R. Dhan Singh said the expressway project would help vehicles cover the 7.5 Km in 10 to 15 minutes.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">&ldquo;It will be developed at a cost of nearly INR 30 crore. About 20 foot service roads on each side of the expressway will be developed. There will be cycle tracks on either side of the road, each 7 foot wide, followed by footpaths with storm water drains beneath,&rdquo; he said, adding that works on acquisition of properties had already begun and that the development of the expressway would take more than a year.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>