Hyderabad is one of the fastest growing cities in India, with a tremendous expansion in transportation and construction sector, propelling the need for sound geological investigations of sites. Traditional geotechnical exploration methods have been very handy, but shortage of time and mobilization/operational costs are often some hindering blocks. Electrical resistivity testing is a popular geophysical method which is now being applied all over the world in fields such as geological studies, agriculture, and archaeology. In this case, a lab scale investigation was carried out to correlate the basic geotechnical properties of two local soils of Hyderabad with electrical resistivity method. A four-electrode soil resistivity box was prepared according to ASTM specifications, and the electrical resistivity of the samples was measured, under different soil conditions. Effect of factors such as water content, grain size, soil type, and density on the electrical resistivity was explored. Shear strength and compaction parameters were evaluated using direct shear and standard proctor tests respectively. Relationships between compaction and shear strength parameters with electrical resistivity were examined. The study revealed that resistivity showed a good correlation with all the basic index properties such as moisture content, particle size, and bulk density. Resistivity also showed relationships with cohesion and angle of friction. However, no unique the relationships could be established between resistivity and dry density. These types of correlations can be useful in rapid estimation of the basic geotechnical properties of local soils, which could lead to savings in time, project costs and emerge as a sustainable approach to site investigation.