After a span of 41 days, the Hyderabad traffic police have reopened the Telugu Talli and Khairatabad flyovers in the city on Tuesday morning. Both flyovers were shut, owing to the Telangana government's contentious decision to demolish the Secretariat amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "The traffic flow along the stretch is back to normal. Both the flyovers were fully reopened today (Tuesday) morning," A Bhaskar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Hyderabad, told TNM.
The closure of the two key flyovers connecting arterial areas in the city like Khairatabad, Nampally, necklace road, tank bund, Abids, Basheerbagh and RTC X Roads meant longer detours for commuters.
It was in the wee hours of June 7 that the Telangana government, without prior intimation to the public, shut down the flyovers to undertake demolition work of the Secretariat. Last year, on June 27, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had laid the foundation stone for the new Secretariat that is now expected to cost the public exchequer around Rs 400 crore. The Secretariat is presently functioning temporarily out of the BRKR Bhavan.
On June 10, the Telangana High Court stayed the demolition work until June 13 and later extended the stay to June 15 based on petitions filed by PL Vishweshwar Rao, Convenor, Telangana Democratic Forum and Vice President of Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS).
However, on June 17, the Telangana High Court refused to stop the demolition work and by June 29, dismissed the petitions. The petitioners had complained that the demolition of 10 blocks of the Secretariat building occupying 10 lakh square feet was not following procedures laid down under the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016. The construction site is also located on the buffer zone of the Hussain Sagar lake, argued the petitioners.
The Assistant Solicitor General, appearing for the state government, informed the court that the state would get all permission before it takes up construction of new buildings, as per law.