The road widening initiative was considered to ease traffic congestion and meet the growing vehicular population's demands.

Hyderabad: In recent years, there's been rapid expansion and growth in Hyderabad. Though many cities in the country struggle to gain momentum in the real estate sector, Hyderabad has been registering positive trends in the real estate sector. This is also leading to some infrastructure issues.

The Telangana Government has asked the officers to widen the roads by 100 feet against the existing 30 feet for layouts being developed in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) area.

The primary purpose of widening the road is to ease traffic congestion. Also, considering the future growing population, this step will meet the upcoming road demands. The developers will have to pay the penalty, i.e., a road impact fee if the widened road is less than 100 feet. This will be collected in the additional charges for road formation/improvement.

In Hyderabad Urban Agglomeration, many residential avenues, including gated communities, apartments, and layouts, are set up, i.e., within and around ORR in the HMDA area. The current urban population in Telangana is 42.6 percent of the total population and is expected to rise by 50 percent in the upcoming years. 

HMDA has approved many layouts in the last four years. Among the approved sites, 63 percent of layouts are in sites of the above five acres. The number of dwelling units has increased even in smaller sized layouts, and every house owns a personal vehicle which is further adding to the problem.  

This is sure to cause discomfort to the occupants in these layouts and the public. Not only that, but this will also contribute to regular traffic congestion, especially during peak hours. Thus, to deal with this problem, the State Government has made it mandatory to widen the road and make it 100 feet in HMDA areas. 

If the existing road width is less than 100 feet, the applicants will have to either widen the road or leave the land required for widening the existing road to 100 feet from their site. Along with this, they shall also pay for the road as additional charges towards road improvement or formation as an impact fee.

The impact fee for road widening:

• 80 ft. to less than 100 ft. Road - 50% of land development charges
• 60 ft. to less than 80 ft. Road - 66% of land development charges 
• 30 ft. to less than 60 ft. - 100% of land development charges
• 50% of land development charges for low residential apartments (less than 18 meters’ height and more than 100 flats)

This move is welcomed both by the developers and builders as they expect a higher premium in return. CREDAI Hyderabad General Secretary V. Rajashekhar Reddy added that the move of 100 feet wide roads is a valuable addition to the existing infrastructure. The buyers will be happy to own plots in such layouts.