Barricades around KBR Park squeeze Hyderabad’s busy roads

Barricades for flyover, underpass and soil-testing works around KBR Park are reducing available road space and worsening Hyderabad’s traffic congestion. Commuters want authorities to limit barricaded areas to active work zones and remove barriers promptly after each phase.

Hyderabad: Long stretches of roads have remained blocked by iron and plastic barricades installed for temporary safety measures or soil testing for steel flyovers and underpasses around KBR Park, causing persistent traffic disruption.

Frustrated commuters said the road infrastructure project contractors have cordoned off vast stretches of motorable space behind heavy barriers, effectively reducing the carrying capacity of Hyderabad’s busiest roads. “The restrictions have severely disrupted the city’s main transport corridors, from crucial IT routes to busy commercial zones, creating more than a minor bottleneck,” said J Radheshyam, a software engineer who commutes between Begumpet and Jubilee Hills.

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For instance, over the past several months, deep excavation under H-CITI works around KBR Park has reduced road width by 50%, forcing heavy traffic on the main stretch to merge aggressively and causing tailbacks stretching for kilometres during peak hours.

Traffic congestion has worsened between NFCL Junction and Mugdha Junction after barricades were installed for soil-testing work for a six-lane, bidirectional steel flyover. Traffic slows during peak hours, affecting hundreds of Muffakham Jah College students and daily commuters.

Commuters call for more rational restrictions on the road stretch where infrastructure works are taken up by the civic bodies. “Discomfort for commuters needs to be minimised and barricaded zones should be restricted to the minimum width needed for active work,” advocated Ashwini, a student at Banjara Hills. She also stressed the need for the authorities to be more proactive and dismantle and remove the barricading as soon as each phase ends.