Very soon, motorists would have a smooth ride on the busy Road No 2, Banjara Hills as the major bottleneck near the Green Mosque (Masjid-e-Hussaini) is being widened by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on a war footing.

Once the road is widened it would provide a major relief to lakhs of road-users. The GHMC has successfully acquired about 333 sq. yds of land belonging to Green Mosque for road widening as the stretch is very narrow and became one of the major traffic bottlenecks leading to traffic jams. Though the plan was to have 100-ft road till KBR Park, only 20 to 25 ft road width was available near the mosque.

GHMC additional commissioner (Planning), Ronald Rose told Express that the GHMC acquired the portion of the land at Rs 84,500 per sq. yd. Of the total compensation of around Rs 2.81 crore, after tax deduction, GHMC has deposited a cheque for Rs 2.54 crore in the joint bank accounts of Mosque Muthawalli and the Andhra Pradesh State Wakf Board.

Earlier, GHMC made several attempts to take over a portion of the Green Mosque land for road widening. With the chief minister giving the green signal to acquire the land, GHMC officials invoked the Land Acquisition Act to acquire about 700 sq. yds of the total 2,000 sq.yds mosque property.