Hyderabad’s Gachibowli‑Miyapur Corridor Choked by Mall Skywalk Construction

When you drive down the Gachibowli‑Miyapur corridor during rush hour, the last thing you expect is to crawl to a halt for half the journey. Yet, for the past few weeks, that’s exactly what’s happening near Sarath City Capital Mall. A skywalk, still in the final stages of construction, has effectively turned the under‑pass into a temporary dead‑end, stranding motorists for up to three hours at a stretch.

The under‑pass, originally designed to let traffic glide beneath the mall’s main entrance, was supposed to be a game‑changer for commuters. Instead, half‑finished steel girders, temporary safety nets and a maze of diversion signs have turned it into a bottleneck. Drivers report having to queue in a single line, sometimes spilling onto the shoulder, while the skywalk’s support columns block the usual lane‑change points.

“I was on my way to work, and suddenly the traffic just stopped. I could see the skywalk skeleton ahead, but there was nowhere to go,” says Ravi Kumar, a software engineer who commutes daily from Gachibowli. “I ended up waiting for over two hours. It’s frustrating, especially when you have a meeting.”

City officials acknowledge the problem but point to safety concerns as the primary reason for the delay. “We cannot open the skywalk until structural checks are completed. In the meantime, we’ve tried to manage traffic with temporary lane markings, but the volume on this corridor is massive,” explained a spokesperson from the Hyderabad Traffic Police. The under‑pass, which sees roughly 60,000 vehicles per day, was never meant to operate with a single lane in each direction.

Local shop owners near the mall are also feeling the pinch. With cars backed up for several hundred metres, foot traffic has dipped, and some vendors report a drop in sales of up to 30 %. “People are scared to come here when they see the jam. It’s hurting our business,” lamented Suma Reddy, who runs a tea stall just outside the mall’s main gate.

To mitigate the chaos, the municipal corporation has deployed additional traffic police at peak times and installed temporary signal lights to regulate the flow. However, commuters say the measures are only a band‑aid. “They’re trying, but the real fix is to finish the skywalk or reroute the traffic elsewhere,” suggested Arjun Singh, a local resident.

Experts warn that if the construction timeline stretches further, the corridor could become a chronic choke point, prompting drivers to seek alternative routes that would increase congestion on already strained roads like the Outer Ring Road. “Urban infrastructure projects need better coordination. When a single construction site can grind an entire arterial road to a halt, we have a systemic issue,” noted Dr. Meera Nair, a transport planner at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.

For now, the advice from authorities remains simple: plan extra travel time, stay updated via traffic apps, and exercise patience. As the skywalk nears completion, many hope the under‑pass will finally live up to its promise of a smoother commute, rather than a daily test of endurance.