Hyderabad: Hyderabad may soon have the country’s longest Highway Road Tunnel. Tentatively about 10 km, the tunnel will start from Jubilee Hills Road No 45 Junction and end at Banjara Hills, Road No. 12 Junction.
The proposed four-lane tunnel would be dug using a Tunnel Boring Machine. It will wind its way via the KBR Park junction to NFCL Junction, Punjagutta. The State government has assigned the task to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
The option of a tunnel has been explored by the Telangana government to avoid felling hundreds of trees in the KBR Park for the SRDP project.
The government had earlier proposed six junctions around the KBR Park by constructing multi-level flyovers under the State government’s prestigious Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) project, but this required felling of over 1,500 trees. The New Indian Express reported.
The SRDP project aims at achieving signal-free intersections enabling faster movement between important destinations across the core city. As part of the project, several grade separators have been constructed at various places like the flyover on Road No. 45, MindSpace Junction, Biodiversity Junction including the cable-stayed bridge at Durgam Cheruvu.
However, they have brought little respite from daily traffic congestion at several junctions on these road links from Punjagutta and Banjara Hills Road No 12. Hence, Telangana government plans to dig the longest tunnel in India.
The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel, which connects Kashmir to the rest of the country is presently is the longest in India at 9.20 km.
