Hyderabad: Giving a huge relief for the commuters using Gough Road in Secunderabad Cantonment, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) notified that the arterial road will remain open for public use till May 2018. The decision was announced by GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy after he visited Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) center at Secunderabad and met GOC Major General N Srinivas Rao.

"Gough Road will be remain open till May 2018. The army has assured us," a GHMC official said.

The Gough Road closure issue, which has been bothering commuters traveling from Malkajgiri and Kushaiguda areas to the city center for over a year now, cropped up on Thursday at the high level meeting between Local Military Authority (LMA) and GHMC officials at Telangana Andhra Sub Area (TASA) headquarters at Bolarum. At the meeting, Reddy also explained to Army officials the proposal to develop two alternative roads in that area. "For constructing two roads, we need 34 acres and an additional nine acres of Army land. However the final call on land acquisition and laying of roads is yet to be taken," said the GHMC official.

The officials also discussed about acquisition of defence land between Safilguda Railway junction and RK Puram flyover to lay a new alternative road. During the meeting, a decision was taken to conduct a re-survey on the 1.5-km stretch between Safilguda Railway junction and RK Puram flyover.

Though GHMC has conducted a survey on this stretch, LMA decided to undertake another survey. "Both LMA and GHMC officials agreed to conduct a re-survey on December 26," GHMC executive engineer Chinna Reddy said. GHMC surveyed the stretch last year and prepared a DPR, which along with a blueprint was submitted to MA&UD department seeking financial assistance for constructing an alternative road if Gough Road is closed completely, he said.

As per the DPR, GHMC requires nearly 10 acres of defence land between Safilguda Railway junction and RK Puram flyover. "We also need 100 meters of SCR land near RK Puram flyover," he said, adding the four-lane road is estimated to cost Rs 75 crore and will take one and a half years to complete.