Outer Ring Road

If you’re heading to Shamshabad airport, taking the Outer Ring Road (ORR) from Gachibowli is the no-brainer route except for one problem — the entire 24 kilometre journey is bereft of any illumination. Opened to public in a bid to ease congestion, the wide expanse is fast turning into an accident-prone zone.

Kasturi Rangan, a gaming consultant, says “The whole stretch is dark and drivers have to rely completely on their vehicle headlights, which is insufficient. When I recently took that route to the airport, I was forced to sit on the edge of my seat squinting all the time while driving.”
In addition to the blinding darkness, the route throws up unexpected turns and bumps. Michell Liu, a student, who took the ORR to reach the A.R. Rahman concert at GMR Arena, last week, was alarmed, “When the road began at Gachibowli it was ok, since the surrounding buildings provided some illumination. But later the whole road got pitch-dark. Being a highway, we were driving at a high speed when suddenly we swerved because there was a speed breaker on the road. If there was a street light, we could have avoided it.”
“It’s a good thing that two-wheelers aren’t allowed on the ORR,” says Rajesh Kandregula, a financial consultant. “It’s such a dangerous stretch; the reflectors on the median and the barricades by the side of the road guide us but with the road’s sharp twists and turns, even that does not provide much relief. If work on the road was not yet complete they shouldn’t have opened it to public,” he adds.
The authorities however, claim that the stretch will be illuminated soon. Jagannadha Rao, chief general manager, Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited, says, “Work on the ORR is still going on. We opened the stretch from Gachibowli to Shamshabad only to ease traffic. Beyond village limits, highways anyway don’t have illumination. However, since the ORR is an urban expressway we have decided to provide street lights once the 8-lane facility is operational from May 2010.”
He adds that the HGCL has temporarily provided high mast lights at major junctions along the ORR like Narsing Road junction, Rajendra Nagar, Police Academy and Shamshabad.