Gopanpally flyover: 1 question, 4 RTIs, 3 different answers; commuters suffer

Hyderabad: Construction of the Gopanpally flyover has been stalled for several months now. Local residents said Nallagandla GNT to Thanda Circle Road at Gopanpally junction has been in a bad shape for close to a year.

Vijay Ivaturi who uses the road daily decided to find out when the flyover will finish. He filed four RTIs in the last year seeking information regarding the flyover completion, pending road works, and more.

Three out of four RTIs questioned the completion date of the RTI. With each RTI response, the completion date of the Gopanpally flyover kept varying. "For one question, I got four different answers regarding the completion of the flyover," Vijay said.

He said that the road is in terrible condition and that the July 2022 heavy showers of rain have only made it worse.

Vijay filed his first RTI on 07 August 2021. In its response, the Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department said that work will start on 06 February 2020 and that the 'probable' date of completion is 31 March 2022.

The RTI response also stated an amount of Rs.25 crores was allocated for the completion of the flyover construction and that the name of the contractor is P Venkateshwar Rao. When Vijay asked about the maintenance of the surrounding roads, the R &B department said there is no provision, in the sanctioned estimate for maintenance of the surrounding roads.'

The RTI response also stated that maintaining damaged roads is not in the scope of the contract. Hence the contractor has not billed any amount for the damages.

He filed a second RTI on 10 February 2022 when he observed that the flyover work was stalled. In response to the second RTI, the R&B department said that the probable date of completion of the flyover is 30 June 2022. The department stated that an amount of Rs.3.977 crores was paid to the contractor to date.

According to the RTI response, the flyover construction work is delayed due to a delay in the finalization of designs of certain elements of the flyover. "There is no penalty imposed on R&B field engineers and /or contractors for the delay in construction," the RTI reads.

The R&B department also wrote that the damaged roads will be rectified in 30 days in an RTI response sent to Vijay on 28 March 2022.

After receiving these responses, Vijay filed another RTI on the same day. In his 3rd RTI, he sought information regarding the widening of the road, lane marking, etc.

"Widening of Road from Manthan School to Gopannapally Thanda "X" roads is in progress and may be expected to be complete by May 2023," the RTI response reads.

"There are no street lights on the road which is another big issue. But as per the RTI- Provision of street lights not in the agreement of the contract," Vijay said.

Furthermore, the RTI stated that the lane marking will be completed after the completion of the Road.

Vijay filed his most recent RTI on 10 June 2022. The latest RTI states that the probable date of completion of the flyover is now 31 December 2022. The same date was cited for the completion of the surrounding roads at Gopanpally Junction.

15 minutes to cross 50 meters

Phani Ayyagari, a resident who lives nearby, said that the rain has created more potholes. "I have to take that part of the road to take my kids to school every day. My tires got punctures once already," he said.

"It takes 15 mins to cross 50 meters just because every vehicle slows down while traveling. I often see people going on the bikes struggling," he added.

Phani said there is also a heavy rush on these roads in the morning (due to two international schools and engineering colleges and the Wipro campus). He has also opened a ticket with GHMC and it got closed saying the problem is resolved. "However, the problem hasn't been solved. There has been no resolution despite multiple tweets, tickets, grievances," he said.

Srikanth Reddy, a techie who works in Financial District said that he cannot recall the last time the Gopanpally road was good. "The bad road has created worse traffic," he said. Srikanth said that around in the second week of July 2022, some love gravel was used to fill the potholes. "But the rains washed it all away. A hunk of concrete needs to be laid here," he said.