HMDA considers BRTS in its Master Plan-2050, proposing extensive public transport improvements and infrastructure investments

Dedicated bus lanes or Bus Rapid Transit System is one among the several proposals for public transport in preparation of the master plan of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for the year 2050.

Length of the potential road corridors identified for the BRTS is about 29 kilometres for the horizon year 2040, which may be further extended to 48 kilometres by 2050, as per the Comprehensive Mobility Plan details of which were shared during a workshop on Thursday.

HMDA has commissioned three major technical studies, namely, Economic Development Plan, Comprehensive Mobility Plan and Blue and Green Infrastructure Plan, as part of the exercise to prepare master plan for the area up to the Regional Ring Road, covering close to 10,500 square kilometres.

A representative of LEA Associates presented the CMP proposals at the workshop which include components such as Metro Rail, MMTS network and others.

The cumulative length of Metro Rail network for the horizon years 2030, 2040 and 2050 have been projected at 258.4 km, 534.1 km and 556.6 km respectively, in addition to the present length of around 70 kilometres.

The length of cumulative additional MMTS (Multi-Modal Transport System) network has been pitched at 202 km by 2030, 255.6 km by 2040 and 336.4 km by 2050.

The road network, which includes higher order road transport, arterial, sub-arterial corridors with width greater than 60 feet, and collector roads, is proposed at 223 km by 2030, 2640 km by 2040 and 2,847 km by 2050. This will be in addition to the existing road network. In terms of lane kilometres, the length is proposed to reach 19,352 lane kms by 2050.

A total 75 grade separators (flyovers/underpasses/bridges), 120 foot over-bridges or skywalks, 34 road under bridges or road over bridges, eight elevated corridors, and seven inter-city or inter-state bus/truck terminals have been proposed for the horizon period up to 2050. The estimated investment required is about ₹4 lakh crore for all these components.

The workshop had presence of senior bureaucrats including Special Chief Secretary, Municipal Administration, Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary, Roads & Buildings, Vikas Raj, Metropolitan Commissioner Sarfaraz Ahmed, Transport Commissioner K. Ilambarithi, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation K. Shashanka, Advisor to the Government on Urban Transport N.V.S.Reddy and Director, Town & Country Planning, S. Devender Reddy, apart from Vice Chancellor of JNTU Kakinada C. S. R. K. Prasad.