Mindspace underpass won’t ease traffic: Locals

Need to extend it 1-2 km crossing Lemon Tree hotel junction

The under-construction bidirectional underpass at Raheja Mindspace may not relieve the pressure of traffic on this road in Hitech City, say locals.

This is because the proposed underpass, which will run from Hitech city main road up to Raheja Mindspace, has an opening right before the Lemon Tree Hotel junction, which is a major traffic point in the area.

At present the traffic from Biodiversity and Inorbit Mall will reach Cyber Towers using this underpass directly, without having to stop at junctions. However, it will have to encounter massive traffic again at the Lemon Tree hotel junction, which will have traffic going towards companies like Mahindra, Deloitte, Oracle, Dell etc.

“The underpass makes sense if it stretches for 2-3 km. However, now vehicles coming in from both sides will have to stop at the Lemon Tree junction anyhow,” says Raman Jeet Singh, who uses this road frequently.

The Lemon Tree junction is critical to the entire layout as it is the first point after the Hitech city flyover where people can take a u-turn. Traffic officers say the underpass will make a difference. “Only time will tell whether the SRDP will solve the traffic issue. But from the plan, it’s expected that the underpass will solve 50 per cent of the traffic problem,” says A.R. Srinivas, DCP traffic, Cyberabad.