Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Smooth Drive On India's Longest Flyover

I had on occasion to drive on the country's longest flyover which was just  thrown open for  fast and unhindered access to & from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad, Hyderabad. The flyover was built over a period of about three years at a cost of Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion). The four-lane  11.66 km long P.V. Narasimha Rao Elevated Expressway , which starts at Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Mehdipatnam in Hyderabad and ends at the Aramgarh junction few kilometers before reaching the Airport. It has been built to provide  better connectivity, cutting travel time and offering a seamless traffic movement between the city and the International Airport. The main idea is to prevent traffic jams and delay for passengers on their way to the Airport.


Considered as the longest  flyover in Inida, built with state-of-the-art innovative technology  by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority  is one of the the biggest infracture projects in Andhra Pradesh has been   named after the former Prime Minister of India, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao [PVNR] who carved a place for himself in the history as a reformer.
Sound, Light & Detour taken care 

As a number of residential areas and hospitals are located along the way of the flyover, the noise produced by vehicles are likely to be a constant source of disturbance to the people. But locals like us  living in the vicinity of the PVNR Expressway has something to cheer about. Vehicles zipping past to the airport may not create much noice as  sound barriers  will be fixed to the railings and the entire installation  will be soon completed.  I understand that each vehicle ride produces 115 decibels sound. The acoustic barriers will help reduce the decibel levels to a moderate 75.  Apart from the acoustics barriers, electro level beam sensors/tilt meters and temperature sensors will be installed at specific piers. With such instruments in
place, any defects that crop up can be detected easily. Anti-glare panels will also be installed on the medians, which will deflect the blinding headlights of the oncoming vehicles. Three sets of ramps have been proposed at different places along the PVNR expressway  joining at different points. Construction of one such ramp is in progress nearer to our house. The delay in ramps getting ready has been due to a host of factors including shifting of water pipelines and also a place of worship at one place.
I could take a stress-free drive  at a speed of 60-80 km and could reach the other side of the fly over within 12 minutes. Photo in this blog was taken by me at the beginning of this flyover.

First Marvel 

Engineers [including my father] described this structure as an ‘engineering marvel’ which was executed without problems that similar projects elsewhere faced. With all these achievements, Hyderabad now boasts of India's longest flyover! Despite my thorough search, I could not get any information as to which is the longest flyover in Asia and the World. If you know please post such information in the comment box of this blog.

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