In a corner of Hyderabad better known for gleaming flyovers and modern infrastructure, a single bridge has stood unfinished for nearly four years, forcing thousands of residents to risk their safety every single day. The bridge meant to connect Sun City with Attapur in the Bandlaguda Jagir area has progressed no further than two lonely pillars, even as the rest of the city races ahead with new roads and flyovers. For anyone passing through the locality, the incomplete structure now stands as a constant reminder of a project abandoned midway.
How the project began
According to local residents, the bridge was planned to ease movement across the Isa river and an adjoining drain. The idea was to spare people living in Sun City, Janachaitanya Colony and the large residential neighbourhoods nearby from taking a long detour just to reach the main Attapur and Mehdipatnam road. Work began with pillars being erected on the ground, but soon after, a shortage of funds and a lack of coordination between authorities brought construction to a halt. The unfinished structure has stood exactly as it was ever since, turning into a visible symbol of official neglect.
A dangerous shortcut along the drain
With the bridge stalled, residents have been left with no safe alternative route. Out of necessity, people now use a narrow, unpaved and badly deteriorated path running alongside the drain as an informal bypass. The path is so cramped and worn out that two-wheeler riders losing their balance has become a routine occurrence. Matters get worse when heavy water tankers, dumpers and other commercial vehicles also squeeze through this same narrow track. During the rainy season, the soil along the path tends to give way and the drain's water level rises, keeping the threat of a major accident constantly looming over the area. Parents and two-wheeler riders who use this stretch every morning say they do so with no real assurance of safety.
Approved in 2021, work halted by 2023
The bridge project received administrative approval from the state government and the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited towards the end of 2021 and the start of 2022. It formed part of a wider plan to build 14 new bridges aimed at easing traffic pressure across the Musi and Isa rivers, with this particular bridge counted as an important link in that network. After a construction agency was finalised in 2022, work began with foundations laid for the pillars in the Isa river and drain section, and two pillars were eventually erected. But sometime between the end of 2022 and 2023, the work abruptly stopped. As a result, for roughly the past three to four years, the structure has remained limited to just those two pillars.
School children bear the brunt too
Several major international and private schools operate in and around Sun City. Students and school buses arriving from the Attapur and Chintalmet side are left with only two options each day, either sit through long traffic jams or take the same risky, unpaved shortcut. Local residents say they have submitted memorandums to the administration and GHMC officials multiple times over the issue, but no concrete action has followed.
What residents are demanding
Given the rising risk of accidents during the monsoon, residents of the area are demanding that construction on the unfinished bridge be resumed immediately and treated as a priority, so that thousands of commuters and school children are finally spared the daily danger of this makeshift crossing. Until work resumes, the same unpaved path along the drain will remain the only route linking these residential pockets to the main road network.
