Hyderabad: Long wait ends for elevated corridor

On Thursday, as the foundation was laid for the Rajiv Rahadari Elevated Corridor project, what began was the end of a struggle that spanned the tenures of at least five Defence Ministers over nearly a decade.

Hyderabad: On Thursday, as the foundation was laid for the Rajiv Rahadari Elevated Corridor project, what began was the end of a struggle that spanned the tenures of at least five Defence Ministers over nearly a decade.

The project, initiated as early as 2015 by the previous BRS government to ease traffic congestion under the Strategic Road Development Programme, saw the then Chief Secretary moving a proposal for transfer of land in Secunderabad Cantonment. Since then, the BRS government pursued the matter with the Defencee Ministry. The issue was represented to the Prime Minister and other union Ministers on multiple occasions.

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From former Defense Ministers, the late Manohar Parrikar and the late Arun Jaitey to former Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to the incumbent Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, BRS leaders including Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and KT Rama Rao made multiple appeals to the Centre to allot defense lands for constructing the elevated corridors.

Even in the cabinet meeting held on July 31 last year, the BRS government had taken a decision in favour of the elevated corridors and accordingly the Centre had approved permission. Earlier, the Ministry of Defence had considered allotment of 33 acres of land in its possession for the elevated corridors project. Now, it came forward to hand over another 150 acres for construction of the skyways proposed by the BRS government.