Bad roads, frequent repairs take a toll on commuters in Old City

Hyderabad: Irked by the continued digging of roads in parts of the Old City, scores of commuters and residents have now tuned to social media platforms to raise their voice and complain about the never-ending works. Commuters point out that bad roads and incomplete works are the primary cause for traffic chaos.

Over the past few months, commuters have been faced with familiar sight of bad road stretches that make driving a nightmare. Specially in areas of southern part of the city most roads are uneven, dug-up and left incomplete after civic works. Skidding of two-wheelers due to uneven roads has become a disturbing experience for motorists.

Due to pathetic condition of roads, traffic has been moving at a snail's pace during peak hours on all major roads. The major roads in parts of the Old City are yet to be re-laid after civic works.

Several areas such as Talabkatta, Edi Bazar, Shalibanda, Moghalpura, Fateh Darwaza, Himmatpura, Kalapather, Kishanbagh, Hussaini Alam, Shamsheergunj, Baba Nagar, Saidabad, Dabeerpura have bad, uneven roads causing huge traffic jams.

Shaik Razat of Panjesha, near Charminar, while ruing how even new roads are not being laid properly, says frequent digging up of roads by various departments is top concern. "Crores of rupees is being spent on laying roads which are then dug up for laying cable and pipelines within two or three months. Roads lie in pathetic condition for six months and then new roads are laid again, and the cycle continues."

Social media platforms like Twitter are currently rife with such posts addressed to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The road to Moghalpura has been continuously dug up for the past one year. The department is taking more than a month to complete pipeline laying for a 100-metre stretch. Horrible condition of the Moghalpura road is due to continuous digging. Lot of dust and air pollution is caused due to this. Request GHMC to send someone to visit and see the condition," tweeted Fahad.

"For road-widening project, properties were demolished a year back. It was left as it is; no road was laid, due to which daily accidents were witnessed on the stretch. Due to uneven road on the stretch from Shalibanda to Himmatpura, daily one or two two-wheelers tumble. Despite several complaints and posting on social media by tagging higher officials no work is done," informed Mohammed Ahmed, vice-president, TDP Minority Cell.

He pointed out that there are several such roads in parts of Old City which are dug-up. This is leading to traffic snarls. "Huge traffic jams are observed on stretches including Edi Bazar-Moghalpura, HariBowli-Darulshifa, Falaknuma-Lal Darwaza, Bahadurpura-Kishanbagh, Hussaini Alam-Puranapul, Santosh Nagar- Malakpet, Baba Nagar-Bandlaguda. The roads are severely damaged which is leading to a huge traffic snarl," he stated.

Denizens from across the city have detected that the patches of roads which were laid recently are in a bad condition indicating their poor quality. Roads on several busy stretches, including Charminar, Lal Darwaza, Purani Haveli, Falaknuma, Yakutpura, Tadban, continue to remain in a bad shape.

As the roads are in worst condition, residents and commuters have demanded steps to fill potholes and re-carpet them.