The new transport plan for the Hyderabad metropolitan area spread over about 7,000km will be drawn after information technology companies, industries, builders, developers, and educational institutions have had a say in it. The projected economic activities of these companies and institutions will be taken into account in the finalisation of the plan, which focuses on the roads, the integration of bus and rail routes, connectivity to the IT corridor from various parts of the city, link roads to the Outer Ring Road, Inner Ring Road and radial roads, besides shuttle services to workplaces.
Greater Hyderabad needs a transport plan that meets the requirements of the IT sector, according to Hari Kumar, executive director, IT and ITes Association of And-hra Pradesh. IT professionals prefer MMTS trains to buses, even though the link services from rail stations to the workplaces are non-existent. There are 2 lakh people working in various IT and ITes companies located in the Madhapur, Hitec City and Gachibowli areas. They come mainly from Uppal, LB Nagar, Vanasthalipuram, and ECIL.
There is neither a direct bus service nor a railway line to the IT corridor from these areas. Mr Hari Kumar pointed out: “The transport plan should introduce shuttle services from the Hitec city railway station to a main centre suitable for IT company employees, with direct bus services from all corners of the city.” It is imperative to decongest the stretch from Punjagutta to Hitec city and Gachibowli via Jubilee Hills.
The IT companies apart, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district are a hub of engineering and other professional colleges, many of which are located on the city outskirts, says K.V.K. Rao, secretary general, Consortium of Engineering and Profes-sional Colleges. Both bus and railway services cater to less than 20 per of the students from these colleges, whereas direct transport services from an epicentre in the city would help dramatically, Mr Rao notes.
Unplanned growth in the city has made transportation a major problem, according to Ch. Shekhar Reddy, of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associ-ation of India. He pointed out that the city had some laudable features, like the 160 km Outer Ring Road (ORR), a 56 km Inner Ring Road (IRR), and 30-odd radial roads connecting the two, which ought to be optimised.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, in association with LEA Associates, is putting together the new transport plan. It has conducted meetings with the stake holders besides conducting a survey of 30,000 households. HMDA commissioner Neerabh Kumar Prasad asked LEA Associates to have wider consultations with stakeholders with economic activities in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Area.
As per HMDA records the city’s transportation requirement is now largely met by: bus transport (42 per cent), rail-based Multi Modal Transport System (MMTS) (1.5 per cent), three-seater and seven-seater autos (8 per cent), private vehicles (48.5 per cent).