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An Outer Ring Road for Hyderabad was first proposed in 1980 and the master plan was developed keeping in mind the requirements after 25 years. The city has been growing at a rapid pace. New investments were made in sectors such as IT, biotech and pharma. "In the last one year, the state government has taken several initiatives to strengthen the road infrastructure in and around Hyderabad," Peeyush Kumar, Project Director, Outer Ring Road Project, HUDA, says. The ORR project is a 'growth corridor' and not just a road, which is expected to result in investments in the city over a long term. It will connect 25 key clusters in and around Hyderabad. A unique feature of the project is an eight-lane express highway with access control. Over 30 m passage of corridor provides for MRTS and urban transport system. The major challenge in implementing the project is acquiring land for widening purpose. Acquisition and land earmarking are under way.
With Hyderabad growing, traffic increasing and the population burgeoning by the day, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority has drawn up plans to decongest the city, develop virgin areas and bypass national and state highways by constructing a first-of-its-kind Outer Ring Road," Jayesh Ranjan, Vice Chairman, HUDA, told Project monitor.
The total length of the corridor is 160 km with 150 m right of way. The project is to cost Rs 2,000 crore. It is being implemented under public-private partnership route. A special purpose vehicle will soon be created to execute the project, Kumar informed.
Phase-I of the project will focus on Shamshabad Airport and will connect Gachibowli and Shamshabad. The work on this phase will show substantial progress by September. Phase-II will cover the remaining areas. Tenders will be floated for international consultants and this process may be completed by the end of December 2005. According to Kumar, the zero date for the project is September 2006 and it will take 24 months thereafter for commissioning. The project will be executed through multilateral funding and various funding models are being evaluated currently.
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