Citizens heaved a collective sigh of relief on social media as Special Chief Secretary, Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Arvind Kumar announced that vehicles could now vroom on Outer Ring Road (ORR) at 120 km per hour.
Until now, speed limits on ORR were 80 kmph on two lanes, and 100 kmph on two more, which are painted on the road. Speed guns are placed along the road, and in case of exceeding the respective speed limits, challans are served to the violators.
Mr.Arvind Kumar posted an update on Tuesday, on his Twitter account, about the upper speed limit on ORR being increased to 120 kmph from the existing 100 kmph.
The decision to increase the speed limit, in reversal of an earlier decision to limit it to 100 kmph, was taken at a review meeting conducted by Minister for MA&UD K.T.Rama Rao on Tuesday. The Minister instructed HMDA to ensure all safety protocols are in place, Mr.Arvind Kumar informed through the tweet.
A majority of the Twitterati gave positive responses to the announcement, major relief being the escape from challans. “Thank goodness. This speed limit increase improves the advantage of using ORR,” commented Asif Iqbal Shaik, a verified user of Twitter.
“Thanks sir, No more over speed challans,” wrote Srikanth Reddy, another user.
Several users expressed concern about safety though, considering the high number of accidents on the 158-km stretch encircling the city.
In 2017, the government had taken a decision to limit the maximum speed on ORR to 100 kmph, considering the fact that the high number of mishaps on the ORR were due to overspeeding.
ORR continues to be accident-prone even after that. Last year, 38 fatal accidents happened on the ORR and a total of 1,098 accident victims were brought to trauma care centres established on the ORR at 16 locations.
