Newly opened Hyderabad flyover closed for safety measures after two deadly mishaps within a week

Hyderabad: Authorities in Hyderabad have closed a newly opened flyover on the busy Gachibowli-Hitech City route after two fatal accidents in less than a week raised serious question about its design and lack of safety features.

A woman waiting for a taxi below the flyover was killed and six others were injured when a red colour Volkswagen Polo flew off the flyover and hit a tree before crashing on the ground from the height of 60 feet.

While 40-year-old housewife Venkata Satyaveni was killed on the spot, six others including the driver of the car were injured. Three of the injured were in serious condition. Government has announced an ex gratia of Rs500,000 to the kin of the woman who died. Daughter of Satyaveni was among the injured.

Hyderabad Mayor Bontu Rammohan said that the flyover would remain closed till necessary safety measures were taken to prevent recurrence of such accidents.

The CCTV footage of the accident has gone viral on social media. It occurred when the car taking a sharp turn near the end of the flyover on Hitech City side lost control, hit a signboard, grazed the parapet and fell off.

In another accident less than a week ago, two commuters died and four others were injured when a speeding car hit them on the flyover.

While independent experts were critical of the design and lack of feature, the government officials tend to blame the over speed of the car for the accident.

“Speed limit on the flyover is 40 kmph and it is clearly shown on signboards. The car that lost control was driving at 100 kmph, way beyond the prescribed speed”, said minister for urban development K Taraka Rama Rao.

“We will rectify any design issues too to prevent recurrence”, he said.

Cyberabad police commissioner CV Sajjanar said that the vehicle involved in the latest accident was issued a challan for over speeding minutes before it crashed. “a case has been booked against the driver Krishna Milan Rao Kalvakuntala who is undergoing treatment in hospital,” Sajjanar said.

The officials investigating the case said that the driver was over speeding as the flyover was near empty as it was Sunday and there was hardly any traffic in the Financial District-Hitec City stretch.

“If the accident had occurred on a weekday when the area is highly congested, many more lives would have been lost”, another police official said.

The new security features being added now include installation of roller safety barriers on the curved ramps and rumble strips at seven more spots. At the time of the inauguration of the flyover by the minister KTR the flyover had only two rumbling strips which stop the vehicles from over speeding.

While the officials were insisting that all the security norms of Indian Road Congress were followed in building the flyover, independent experts point out many faults in its design.

“The alignment of the flyover itself is not right”, said Prof K M Lakshman Rao of Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University. “A transitional zone for every horizontal curve was missing. The inner and outer radius of the horizontal curve is non symmetrical”, he said.

The second fault experts have pointed out was the location of ascent which was too short. “The improper land use to build the flyover had led to the compromise of its geometrical alignment”, Prof. Rao said.

Cyberabad traffic police have said they have issued 550 challans for over speeding on the flyover during last one week and they were closing monitoring the movement of the vehicles through network of cameras.

Officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation have said that it will take a minimum of three days to implement the necessary safety measures.