Biodiversity Flyover Flawed In Design?

Hyderabad: Hi-tech, a corner in Hyderabad that has been developing at a pace that is faster than many other developing cities in the country, has seen many fly-overs and underpasses come up within the past three years itself, a feat that not many cities are able to pull off. One such flyover is the biodiversity flyover that was inaugurated on the 4th of November.

Right after the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao had inaugurated the flyover, it saw its first accident within not more than a week. An intoxicated IT professional rammed into the walls of the flyover injuring a few. On Saturday last week, the city witnessed the next freak accident that occurred on the flyover within a month’s time of its inauguration.

Both the accidents took place as drivers lost control on the flyover causing damage in some form or other. The first incident made us blame it on the intoxication of the driver while the second accident makes it look like a pattern that is setting itself up for many more accidents in the future.

Wider roads calls for more speed and the biodiversity flyover was made to accommodate Hi-tech city’s traffic at its worst. So while its width was well thought of , at its best it attracts speeds. And that is one reason for the cars to have gone out of control. Yes, we can call drivers reckless, but if he/she was driving at that speed, he or she would have been confident of the road to come ahead, and it could have been these design flaws that threw them off track. That brings us to the second flaw. The curvature of the turn on the flyover happens to start at the flyover’s descent making it practically an invisible turn. This is something that could steer a first time driver off track as well, and most people using the flyover are first time drivers as the flyover is new.

Now when wider roads are being provided with a curvature on it, the roads need to be banked in such a way that the centrifugal force of the car in motion on the curve, does not push it off the road. The latest accident on the flyover seemed like as if it was the centrifugal force that did not allow the driver to maneuver the turn at the speed he was at.

While we all are trying to make judgments on how this accident took place and why, it was an accident that happened due to a lot of aspects not aligning together at a point when it was expected, and the flaws on the flyover only raises the risk of it happening again.

The Government of Telangana has shut the flyover and has initiated discussions on the safety measures that is going to be be taken by a panel set up by the government. We can only hope for better while morning the losses the accidents have caused.

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