April 22: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has halted the grand plans of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to widen as many as 670 roads in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The HMDA has proposed to widen the roads in the draft of the revised master plan prepared for the core city. Most of the roads were to be widened up to 100 feet, some of them even up to 150 feet.

The civic body officials said widening of all the 670 roads would not be possible as it would entail acquisition of a large number of private and government properties. Besides, there are several heritage structures on the notified roads.

The GHMC officials have asked HMDA to drop several roads from the list of road widening. They also told their counterparts in HMDA to reduce or narrow down the proposed width to avoid acquisition of private properties. Several properties can be saved if the width is reduced from 100 feet to 70 feet and so on, officials said.

When contacted, the GHMC additional commissioner (Planning), Mr K. Dhanunjaya Reddy, said road widening would be taken up to ease traffic congestion but care would be taken to ensure that minimum number of private properties are affected.

The HMDA director (Planning), Mr A.V. Bhide, said it is the GHMC which has to do the road widening. So, it is their decision whether to go ahead with the proposed width in the master plan or reduce it.