Effectiveness of Purpose-SpecificElevated Expressways in India: A CaseStudy of PVNR Expressway, Hyderabad

Study of PVNR Expressway, Hyderabad

Study of PVNR Expressway, Hyderabad

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By

Lahari Yaddanapudi141109047, II year, Department of Planning and Architecture

Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal

Aim

Assess the effectiveness of purpose-specific expressways in India by taking a case study of the P V Narsimha Rao

expressway in Hyderabad

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Objectives• Understanding the concept of expressways

• Elevated expressways or ground level expressways- practicality in the Indian context

• Understanding purpose specific expressways- where origin and destination were selected to serve some purpose

• Study of the PVNR expressway-

• History

• Purpose

• Functioning- infrastructure, monitoring and control, safety

• Accidents and denomination of accident prone areas

• In this way, evaluating the PVNR expressway and the importance of purpose specific elevated expressways in India

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Introduction• Elevated expressway- major road that is raised up above the ground level

with complete access control

• Expressway-

• Highest class of roads in the Indian road network

• Six or eight laned

• Indian context: most of the expressways have the term ‘expressway’ in their name but do not confine to the norms that make it an expressway

• P V Narsimha Rao Elevated Expressway in Hyderabad-

• Longest flyover of India

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• Starting at the Southern part of the core city, Mehdipatnam, it passes through Rethibowli, Laxmi Nagar, Attapur, Hyderguda, Upperpally, Rajendra Nagar and finally joins the National Highway-7 at Aramghar junction

• Total length: 11.6kms

• Inaugurated in October 2009

• Has six midway entry and exit ramps

• Approximately 2,500 vehicles take the elevated expressway to the airport and Bangalore everyday

• No-toll expressway as of now but proposals to introduce toll tax are being discussed

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Fig.1: PVNR Elevated Expressway Stretch

Source: Maps of India

Background• The Begumpet airport, which was the only international airport

• Due to the rapid growth of the city of Hyderabad, the Begumpet airport had become a part of the integral part of the city

• This restricted the growth and expansion of the airport. So, an airport at the present city outskirts was proposed at Shamshabad

• Shamshabad being an outskirt region, was not that accessible in terms of the commuting time it took

• Common public had to travel for about 1 to 2 hours from any part of the city to reach the airport

• An elevated expressway was proposed which will eventually lead to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad

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• P V Narasimha Rao who was from Andhra Pradesh became the Prime Minister of India in 1991

• He heralded economic reforms in India by allowing private partnership in the control and operation of airports in the country

• Keeping this enormous contribution of our former Prime Minister in mind, the expressway proposed for the faster access to the airport was named after him

• The concept of this expressway was conceived in 2003-04 during the tenure of the TDP

• Inaugurated during the tenure of the Congress Party on 19 October 2009

Begumpet

Airport

Shamshabad Airport

Fig.2: Begumpet and Shamshabad Airports

Source: IIT Hyderabad website (www.iith.ac.in)

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Construction

• Initiated in 2004, the construction of this expressway was completed by 2009 and was ready for operation

• Usually during the construction of elevated structures, accidents to workers are a common sight

• But one important and major noticeable aspect of the entire process of construction was that no casualties or accidents to the construction workers occurred during the construction of this expressway

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Structure• The project consisted of three major components:

• Elevated Expressway: four lane divided carriageway stretching from Mehdipatnam and passing through Rethibowli, Laxmi Nagar, Attapur, Hyderguda, Upperpally, Rajendra Nagar and finally joining the National highway- 7 at Aramgarh Junction

• Trumpet interchange: four lane divided carriageway built to facilitate free flow of traffic towards airport from Hyderabad and Bangalore side with a length of 3.9 km and width of 17.2 mts.

• Underpass at Aramgarh: length of 62 mts and width of 19.4 mts with a vertical clearance of 5.5 mts was constructed to facilitate uninterrupted flow of traffic at Aramgarh Junction on NH-7 with approach ramps on either side i.e., towards Mehdipatnam and Chandrayangutta

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• The two lane carriageway (one direction of flow) is of a width of 7.5 mts

• Narrows down to one and a half lane with a width of 6 mts at Laxminagar, Upparpally and Shivrampally due to steep turnings

• Unique feature of the structure of this expressway is that it has two or three areas dedicated for parking on the expressway for the vehicles that break down during their journey on this elevated platform

• Tow their vehicles to these places or call for help on the provided helplines which promise to send their towing vehicle within 20 minutes of the emergency call

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Infrastructure

• P V Narsimha Rao expressway was built by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) in association with Simplex Somdatta, the project contractors

• The project, which costed the government a total amount of Rs. 439 crore, included the construction of a total of 328 foundations, 327 spans, 291 pre-cast slabs, 36 cast-in-site slabs and 328 piers

• Carriageway is divided and thus chances of head-on collisions with vehicles moving in opposite directions are avoided

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Control and monitoring• Maximum speed limit on the PVNR Expressway is 60 kmph for

light motor vehicles

• At sharp turns (i.e., at Laxminagar, Upparpally and Shivrampally) where the carriageway narrows down from 7.5 mts to 6 mts, the maximum speed has been restricted to 40 kmph

• Cycles, two wheelers, three wheelers, three and four wheeled seven seaters, pushcarts and bullock carts are not allowed on to the expressway

• All goods vehicles, be it light, medium or heavy vehicles are prohibited to use this flyover

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• Overtaking at sharp turnings has been strictly prohibited

• Parking has been strictly prohibited on the highway

• However, special areas have been allocated on the expressway for vehicles that break down or malfunction during the course of travel

• This parking space and towing facility come with a minimal fee

• Expressway is monitored by the traffic police of Hyderabad

• P V Narsimha Rao expressway is a toll free expressway

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• Expressway comes under the maintenance of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority as well as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation

• Special attention to highways and thus, even this expressway is given to ensure that the road is in perfect condition- to accommodate free flow of vehicles and also allow the smooth transit of vehicles at the high speeds they travel at

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Time efficiency• Major reason for the construction of this expressway was to minimise

the travel time of the people going to the new International Airport at Shamshabad and to ease the congestion on the roads of the integral parts of the city that lead to the airport

• Purpose of construction of this prestigious structure was served as it has reduced the travel time to quite an extent

• Earlier, for people to go to the airport, they had to pass through the internal old parts of the city that had narrow roads or roads that could not accommodate the volume of traffic, it used to take 1 to 1.5 hours

• The most efficient route that would save distance as well as time when built on an elevated platform was identified and built

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• Given that the entry point to the expressway is at Mehdipatnam, a core area in the Southern part of the city and provisions of few other entry ramps in between, we can assume the average travel time from any part of the city to the approach point to be

10 minutes

• Also, the length of the expressway is 11.6 kms, approx. 12 kms and a speed limit of 60 kmph with 40 kmph at narrow and steep turnings, the average speed can be taken as 50 kmph. At this speed, the stretch of 12 kms can be covered in

12*60/50 = 14.4 minutes

i.e., approximately 14 minutes

• Then, from the Aramgarh Junction to the Shamshabad airport on NH-7, assuming it to take

5 minutes

• The entire travel time from one’s origin to destination that used to take one to one and a half hour has been brought down to

10+14+5= 29

which is again approximately 30 minutes.

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Accident reports

• First accident- November, 2009 at around 7pm. The driver of a van carrying three postal department officials suddenly felt giddy and rammed into the third lamppost. The four of them suffered injuries in the accident but everyone were declared out of danger in a short time

• January, 2013 where “an i10 car crashed into an Indica car which was about to get on to the Rajendranagar-Retibowli main road from a down ramp of the expressway at Upparapally, and did a somersault before landing on the side of an Innova going towards Retibowli.” This accident took place near pillar number 194 of the expressway at Upparapally where the traffic coming from Shamshabad joins Rajendranagar- Retibowli road via a ramp. The vehicles were heavily damaged but luckily, no one suffered any major injuries

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• First fatal accident- Septemper, 2014 in which two people lost their lives due to reckless driving on the expressway. Their car hit a road divider and both the victims are said to have died on the spot

• Recommendations given by the CRRI to the HMDA to reduce accidents:

• Maximum speed on the expressway is only 60 kmph, this should be mandated

• As there is no scope for building speed breakers on the expressway use ‘Rumble Strips’

• Signage aren’t enough to control speed, use speed guns and levy hefty fines for over speeding

• Remove all the central medians

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• As another measure to reduce accidents at the Laxminagar crossroads, near pillar number 68, the zonal commission was directed by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to remove illegal temporary huts near the said location

• Also, it was suggested to put up proposals to widen the road from Laxminagar to Gudimalkapur

• So, the accident prone areas or structures thus identified are:

• (a) The entry of the expressway

• (b) Down ramp of the expressway at Upparapally

• (c) Near pillar number 194

• (d) Road dividers

• (e) Laxminagar Crossroads, near pillar number 68

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Conclusion• Expressways though not common in India, are actually a need in the Indian context

due the the fast developing metropolitan cities

• In cases where cities are old, the demolition of structures and acquisition of land is not feasible. In such situations, the optimum solution is to construct elevated expressways

• Elevated expressways can be expressways linking two specific places for a purpose. This makes them purpose specific

• P V Narsimha Rao expressway, the purpose was to provide quick and efficient access to the airport which had become difficult as the route was through the core parts of the city

• The time efficiency has increased by double or more times it was before

• Elevated expressway not only eases congestion on the road below it but also if built for for a specific trip from specified origin to destination- the most efficient solution to routes that require such a service

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References• 1) “Speed Limit on elevated expressway 60 kmph"

The Hindu (19-10-2009)

• 2) “Longest Elevated Expressway Inaugurated in Hyderabad | India Trends” Indiatrends.info (20-10-2009)

• 3) “Hyderabad gets India’s longest flyover”ndtv.com (16-07-2010)

• 4) “PVNR Elevated Expressway”mapsofindia.com

• 5) Begumpet and Shamshabad Airports- “IIT-H location map”www.iith.ac.in

• 6) “PVNR Expressway”Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority website

• 7) “Severe resource crunch effects prestigious PVNR Elevated Expressway” The Hindu (26-04-2009)

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• 8) “First Accident on PVNR Expressway” Times of India (07-11-2009)

• 9) “Freak accident on PVNR expressway” Times of India (03-01-2013)

• 10) “Five killed in road accidents”

The Hindu (30-09-2014)

• 11) “Finally a solution to PVNR accidents”

The Hans India (16-09-2013)

• 12) “GHMC to Demolish Illegal Huts near PVNR Expressway” The New Indian Express ( 09-02-2014)

Thank you ^_^

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