Telangana government faces citizens’ ire over KBR flyover fiasco

Commuters navigate a congested local street to escape gridlock on major thoroughfares. The surge in residential traffic follows the recent implementation of a newly introduced one-way traffic system around Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (KBR) Park in Hyderabad on August 20. | Photo Credit: File Photo

Telangana government has drawn severe criticism from citizens after its volte-face with regard to road infrastructure in the vicinity of the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (KBR) National Park at the centre of Hyderabad.

Reversing its project for the construction of seven flyovers and seven underpasses around the park, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has now approved one continuous unified elevated corridor from Jubilee Hills Checkpost to NFCL Junction.

The construction has been divided into two packages — from Jubilee Hills Check Post to Banjara Hills Road No.2, and from there to Muffakhkam Jah College featuring a dedicated connecting ramp to Banjara Hills Road No.1.

New tenders will not be called despite the design change, as the previous contractor had already carried out 50% of the work on the earlier design, senior officials from GHMC said.

The sanctioned cost for the project also remains unchanged at ₹1,090 crore, but as per official claims, the design change resulted in savings of ₹1,200 crore — ₹800 crore by drastically reducing the need to acquire high-value private land and ₹400 crore in construction cost.