Hyderabad: Access to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, about 30 km from the city, has now become smoother and faster with India's longest flyover thrown open to traffic Monday.
The 11.633-km long PVNR Expressway, named after former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, connects the Mehdipatnam area in the city to the Hyderabad-Bangalore National Highway (NH 7) en route to the international airport.
Built by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) at a cost of Rs 600 crore, the 17.2-metre-wide four-lane elevated expressway starts at Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital at Mehdipatnam and lands at Aramghar Junction on NH 7 to join an underpass.
The airport-bound traffic will proceed further to get on to the Trumpet interchange, providing faster access to the airport.
HMDA officials say the facility would cut the travel time to the airport by 30 to 40 minutes. At present, it takes 45 minutes to an hour for a person to reach the airport from different points in the city.
Chief Minister K Rosaiah inaugurated the city's new landmark Monday evening and drove in a bus on the Expressway, which passes over some of the congested areas in the city and the outskirts.
However, the inaugural ceremony was not without controversies. There was a stampede as several ruling Congress party workers gatecrashed to get closer to the chief ministers and several state ministers who attended the ceremony.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) President and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and state legislators of his party boycotted the inaugural ceremony to protest naming of the flyover after Narasima Rao.
MIM, the powerful Muslim political party in the city, and various other Muslim groups opposed naming the expressway after Narasimha Rao as they blame him for demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya.
After the death of Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash on September 2, these groups demanded that the project be named after the late chief minister. However, the state government ignored their demand.
Work on the project was launched in 2005 when the foundation stone was laid for the new greenfield airport, and was completed a year-and-a-half after the airport launched commercial operations.
The PVNR Expressway, which encompasses 327 spans, was delayed due to various reasons, including financial constraints over the last one year.
It was last scheduled to be opened on October 2 but the inauguration was put off in view of the death of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who had laid the foundation stone for the project.
In a move aimed at ensuring fast and smooth traffic on the expressway, the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police have prohibited from it all two-wheelers, three-wheelers, all types of goods vehicles and slow-moving vehicles.
Since the down and up ramps are yet to be completed, the motorists will have to be careful while getting on to the expressway as they will not be able to get down before covering the entire distance. However, median gaps have been provided at three points as a temporary measure for emergency U-turns.
Officials said a speed of 100 km per hour was envisaged on the expressway but for light motor vehicles the speed limit will be 60 kmph. According to HMDA Chief Engineer Vivek Deshmukh, sound barriers were being installed at five points to reduce traffic noise pollution in residential and hospital zones.
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