Water overflow creates menace for residents of Hyderabad; traffic to airport affected

Hefty rains in Hyderabad have become a reason of concern for the residents. Following Monday's heavy rain in the region had disrupted the route to Shamshabad and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) via the PVNR Expressway.  Due to the heavy rainfall, Appa Cheruvu started overflowing on National Highway 44 near Ganganpahad village. Seeing the water overflow, the authorities had diverted to the Outer Ring Road (ORR). The road was opened for two-way traffic around 2 pm.

Appa Cheruvu is a small water body located between Jalpally lake and Premavathi lake. Along with the overwater dispersal, an under-construction flyover near Ganganpahad became another calamity the commuters faced. The construction work has caused the road to be extremely narrow, causing vehicular congestion across the busiest of stretches of NH-44. The highway links the city to the RGIA in Shamshabad.

Vamshi Krishna, a techie, traveling to Bengaluru, talking about the problems



she faced while making it to the airport, told TOI that she was totally unaware of the road diversion that had come in place. It almost took her 30 minutes to reach the airport.

 "I could have missed my flight because of the diversion," she added.

The Cyberabad police had advised the commuters wishing to travel towards RGIA, Kurnool, and Bengaluru to use the ORR. The police had diverted the traffic at Attapur pillar number 215 towards ORR service road. Also, traffic was diverted at Laxmiguda junction towards Jalpally-Pahadsharif-RGIA.

B Nagender Goud, executive engineer, Rajendranagar circle, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), said that the extra water was diverted upstream and downstream. To avoid water from running towards NH-44, the irrigation department did temporary measures like putting sandbags.

The traffic was restored around 10 am after the police had converted the two-way road into a one-way road.