Part 2

Inner Ring Road who kya cheez hai? (continued)

HUDA undertook the land acquisition outside the MCH area
since 1977, for 150 ft Right-of-Way and development of a
median divided 6 lane carriageway along the Inner Ring road
for a length of 26 km covering the eastern, southern and
western part of the city. The balance of 27 km of the alignment
was along the existing arterial road alignment and falling within
the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) Area-
for which MCH was responsible for developing and maintaining
the same. The situation within MCH area was worse especially
on the southern side with the stretch between Santoshnagar
and Chandrayangutta being as narrow as 60 ft. (now widened
to 80ft -100 ft), while on the northern and western sector
(Mettuguda stretch, Paradise-Begumpet-Greenlands-
Punjagutta- Banjara Hills Road No. 1- Masab Tank-
Humayannagar-Medhdipatnam) it was varying between 80 ft to
100 ft. There were no efforts to develop the Inner Ring road as
a full-fledged arterial road along with service roads. In the
absence of such status, gradually the Inner Ring Road became
as one of the arterial roads with no distinction, hierarchy, etc.
Regulation of land uses and zoning along the Inner Ring
Road:
Like all good intentions, the 1980 HUDA Master Plan specified
Institutional Use all along the Inner Ring Road upto a depth of
500 metres on either side. But HUDA did not know what to do
with this earmarking of land use or how to regulating the
zoning/control of activities, etc. For a brief period in the 1990s it
did take up continuous and massive avenue plantation outside
the MCH area all along the service roads portions- which
gradually and eventually disappeared with precisely ribbon-
type developments (which the Master plan wanted to avoid and
prevent through zoning regulations)- and horror of horrors,
even encroached onto the Right-of-Way of the Inner Ring Road
in the service roads portions.
Within the MCH Area, most of the Commercial complexes that
have come up- be it in Begumpet or Punjagutta or Road No. 1
Banjara Hills all have come up with case by case Change of
land use change to commercial use. In 2001, the Government
realised the futility of such an approach and brought out a
comprehensive commercial streets Government order with levy
of commercial use impact fees for 34 roads (later on list
enhanced to 61 roads within the MCH area alone- practically
every major arterial road becoming a commercial street-thus
justifying the Corridor Model of economic development of the
city ) in which the Inner Ring road (or whatever character
remained of it) was one of the roads. Areas like
Chandrayangutta, Santoshnagar, etc. did not bother about such
zoning nuances.
An important milestone in the development of the Inner Ring
Road was in 2007 when the major portion of it (virtually the
upper portion of the Crescent) was declared as one of the Metro
Rail Corridor. Now we have a situation wherein instead of a city-
bypass, the Inner Ring Road became a commutation corridor
with the alignment and stations impinging upon the whatever
was left of the 6-lane median-divided carriageway.
The HMDA whilst planning the Outer Ring Road in 2003
envisaged a clear-cut hub-spokes and wheels structure of
transportation network. It planned 34 Radial roads (spokes)
between the Inner Ring Road (hub) and the Outer Ring road
(wheel) while the Wheel is ready the hub and spokes are not.
As if this was not enough, HMDA now intends to take up a
Regional Ring Road of about 300 km with a 90 meters Right-of-
Way forgetting the principle of Newtons Universal Law of
Gravitation and thereby its effectiveness. Again HMDA has
quickly forgotten that it proposed an Inner Circular Road of 30
meters (100 ft.) circumbulating the Inner City and inside the
Inner Ring road and proposed 20 radial arterial roads between
the Inner Circular Road and the Inner Ring Road (many of these
becoming the Radial roads for the Outer Ring road.
Why we cant develop the Master Plan roads to their full
characteristics and potential:
Or The Gang that couldnt shoot straight syndrome
The story of the Ring Road is only one of the examples of
faltering Master Plan implementation. There are other sectors
like environmental protection, lakes protection, parks and open
spaces creation and maintenance, public utilities , and housing
that have similar shoddy stories in the Citys canvas.
Indian cities lack the comprehensive approach to Master Plan
implementation. We have too many actors, villains and
directors in the urban panorama. Urban planning and
development becomes a multi-starrer sans big-budget losing
the pace and story-line in the process and being reduced to a
masala entity of Great Urban Circus. It is no wonder that none
of the metropolitan city civic authorities have a dedicated and
full-fledged Master Plan Implementation Units or even Traffic
and transportation Units which are the backbone of any city.
74th Constitutional Amendment law or smaller districts pale into
insignificance before the masala entity of the Great Urban
Circus.