Airports
Hyderabad is well connected to all parts of the country
and world by air. Hyderabad city has had an airport since the
1930s at Begumpet. This airport provides two terminals, for
domestic and international travels. The airport provides
flights to all major destinations in India, as well as
connections to locations in Middle East, Southeast Asia,
Europe, the Americas and Sri Lanka with non stop flights to
and from many cities in these areas. As the demand for air
travel has grown in recent years, like most major airports in
the country, the Begumpet airport now suffers from
overcrowding, this has led to major problems, especially in
the domestic terminal, and conditions are cramped,
unattractive, and sometimes unsanitary.
To meet the growing demands of the city a project to build a
much bigger and state-of-art Airport is underway at Shamshabad,
which lies on the outskirts of the city. The new airport, once
completed, will be able to provide much needed infrastructure
to handle large aircraft, and international traffic. The
airport is expected to be one of the best in this region and
will house world-class facilities. The airport is being
developed to cater to a total of 7 million passengers a year
and will in the final stage be able to cater to 40 million
passengers a year. The total cost of the project is Rs 1,330
crore. The airport will be built on an area of 5,400 acres and
will have the longest runway among Indian airports and will be
able to handle the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the
Airbus A380. The work on the flyover linking Mehdipatnam to
the Shamshabad Airport has started, and it is expected to be
one of the biggest projects undertaken by Hyderabad Urban
Development Authority, also known widely as HUDA
Rails
Hyderabad has a light rail transportation system known as
the MultiModal Transport System (MMTS)
The MMTS connects various parts of the city with Hyderabad,
Secunderabad, Lingampally and Falaknuma. Hyderabad is
currently scheduled to get a Metro system to help ease urban
congestion. Nationally, too, Hyderabad and especially
Secunderabad are considered as among the important railway
cities. The South Central Railway headquarters are located at
Secunderabad.
There are three main railway stations:
-
Secunderabad Railway Station
(Which recently got ISO 9002 Certification)
-
Hyderabad Railway Station (Nampally)
-
Kachiguda Railway Station. A lot
of development has come up at the Kachiguda Railway Station,
like an extension of the platform. It is now the starting
point of many trains like Kachiguda-Bangalore,
Kachiguda-Tirupathi etc., to divert the traffic flow from
Secunderabad.
Roads
Hyderabad is well connected to many other locations in
India, such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Kurnool, Guntur, Nagpur,
Warangal, Pune, and Vijaywada, either through directly or
through intermediary locations. The highway (express way)
network linking Hyderabad to various parts of the country is
very good. Indian National Highways, NH-7, NH-9 and NH-202
pass through the city. The city shall also be part of the
North-South Corridor.Being in the heart of Telangana it is
very well connected to all the towns and cities of the region.
The city has also one of the best laid out internal road
systems. A series of flyovers decrease the traffic congestion
in the city. Many of the important roads are 3-lane on either
side. Due to the burgeoning number of personal vehicles, the
city is beginning to face traffic problems. As a measure to
ease this, the city plan calls for an inner ring road going
around Hyderabad within the city limits and a yet to be
constructed, but planned, outer ring road[9] outside the city
limits. These ring roads are expected to ease the traffic
congestion by a lot inside the city since most heavy vehicles
which pass through the city on the national highways can now
bypass the city using them.
However, as in most in Indian cities, due to increasing number
of vehicles, the city traffic has grown leading to chaotic
traffic snarls and a lack of perceptible lane discipline.
Driving has become a stressful experience for vehicle owners.
Accidents are on the rise especially with two wheelers and
Auto-rickshaws.
A new Expressway called Hyderabad Outer Ring Road of about 160
km is being built now and will be done in about 4 - 5 years.
Alternative Transportation
The city is also linked to various parts by an multi modal
transit, MMT system. 3-seater and 7-seater autos are available
within city limits. In the 3-seater autos of Hyderabad, you
pay exactly by the meter. 7-seater autos are shared autos, and
cost slightly more than RTC (public transport) buses. Private
air-conditioned cabs operators are available on call.
Bus Service
Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation
established in 1932 started as a unit of the Nizam State
Railways-Road Transport Division with 27 buses. It consists of
about 19,000 strong bus fleet; APSRTC is the largest state
transport undertaking in the world and is listed in the
Guinness Book of World Records.
The APSRTC operates point to point bus services which connect
important places within the city, with a very good frequency.
This enables passengers to commute quickly between any two
places within the city.
Hyderabad has the largest bus station facility in Asia, with
72 platforms for 72 buses to load passengers at a time. It is
named officially as the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, and called
locally as the Imlibun Bus Station
