A 60-feet wide road connecting Langar Houz with Hyderguda skirting the northern bank of Musi river is set to improve the connectivity between the two densely populated areas.
“The earthen work on the road is nearly complete. The road should be ready within another three months if there is no disruption,” says Satya Reddy, executing the work at the site for the civic body. The road is a big departure from the planned four-lane skyway to connect Narsingi in the west to Nagole in the east. The 25.65 km skyway was expected to create an east-west corridor.
While a skyway would have had a smaller footprint, the transformation lent by the wide road is equally stunning. What used to be the open sloping space of a meandering river is now a wall of rocks, mud and debris. Satellite imagery shows how the river’s course has changed due to the road over the last nine years.
The 2016 Feasibility Report for environmental clearance held a dire warning for Hyderabad: “Since the project is skyway, there will be permanent change in land use pattern along the Musi.” But with the road, forming an embankment, the permanent change in land use will impact the city built on the banks of a river which has historical record of 14 devastating floods. The last being the 1908 flood that killed an estimated 15,000 people and left lakhs of people homeless.
“The skyway stretching from Narsingi to Uppal would have disrupted the river flow with columns. This road will create a boundary on one side of the river and prevent further encroachments,” says C. Ramachandriah, an urban planner with the Centre for Economics and Social Studies.
“We are in a desperate situation where encroachments have become rampant. If the road is going to prevent that, I see no problem with the road as it will improve connectivity,” said Mr. Ramachandriah.
The new road has spurred construction activity on the river bank with even a water body being filled up and turned into a storage space for construction material.
