HYDERABAD: After a brief lull, the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) has started taking up road widening on busy stretches of Punjagutta to Somajiguda and on to Greenlands junction.

Work on demolishing frontal portions of buildings commenced on Monday and four more properties on either side of the road, including a few properties alongside the Hotel Grand Kakatiya.

Land acquisition

Additional Commissioner K. Dhananjaya Reddy said that the remaining properties were taken through the land acquisition route to complete the pending portions for widening to make the road have a uniform width of 150 ft. Towards making greater utilisation of road space near the Greenlands junction, on account of barricading for construction of flyover there, the road median is being realigned and the statue of former Chief Minister J. Vengal Rao is being shifted.

The statue is to be installed in the middle of the rotary connecting Banjara Hills Road Nos. 7 and 10 near the `GVK One' mall that is fast coming up. Six properties are also to be taken into possession for widening Punjagutta crossroads to Somajiguda.

MCH officials are also concerned over sudden traffic clogs on Begumpet road of late despite completion of foot overbridge construction near the Hyderabad Public School. They are wondering if allowing vehicles to join traffic from Brahmanwadi is the major bottleneck.

Mr. Reddy says that the pending Punjagutta to Erragadda via Ameerpet widening, too, is expected to pick up pace with the corporation successfully convincing 22 property owners to part with their lands through negotiations.

Yet, the MCH faces a Herculean task of taking over an estimated 200 properties on the highway to be made 150 ft wide though it is hopeful of encountering little resistance on the stretch from Punjagutta crossroads to Café Shalimar because Government properties lie on the route.

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