The Hindu : A back-breaking experience for road users

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 01, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

A back-breaking experience for road users

By Suresh Krishnamoorthy

HYDERABAD, JAN. 31. People living in about a dozen colonies in Nagaram and Dammaiguda gram panchayats adjoining Kapra municipality may have all the relative comforts afforded by an independent house and as much free and clean air they can breathe in. But grossly inadequate civic amenities are spoiling their unpolluted everyday existence, some distance away from the concrete jungle.

Travel on the roughly 3 km stretch of road from Nagaram bus stop to Dammaiguda crossroads and the around the 5 km stretch from the latter, right up to Radhika Theatre is torturous to say the least. Potholes, ditches and speed-breakers make the journey painful, added to the inadequate streetlights. These are a few of the problems residents in the area are faced with.

The Nagaram bus stop-Dammaiguda crossroads stretch is actually a 60-feet road according to the book. But there is only about 12 feet of blacktopping, and as a result the road is getting narrower by the day with the increase in number of vehicles. Similarly is the case on the narrow stretch from Dammaiguda crossroads to Radhika Theatre. The rise in the number of buses operated by the APSRTC may be welcome in a way, but it is also resulting in other vehicles finding it difficult to use both these roads.

A former officer of the Postal Department, H. Seshagiri Rao, who has constructed a house in Srilaxmi Nagar in Dammaiguda says, "Students in the area are facing a problem with RTC buses not stopping even during peak hours.

I have complained several times to the RTC, but all I got is a copy of an order issued by the Regional Manager (Hyderabad), C. Panduranga Murthy, to the Divisional Manager, Kushaiguda. However, the order, which says that buses should stop at Srilaxmi Nagar is not being implemented."

There are over half-a-dozen speed-breakers on the Dammaiguda crossroads-Radhika Theatre stretch, which loom menacingly and rise up from the road.

"If two-wheeler riders are not careful, they will easily be thrown off the vehicle," says Uday Kumar, a trader in marble stones in the area. Residents of Jai Jawan Nagar and Jai Kisan Nagar, before and after which there are speed breakers, may be happy, but other road users on the straight stretches surely have cause for complaint.

<145,I>Readers are welcome to write about civic problems in their areas to the City Editor, The Hindu, Begumpet, Hyderabad - 16 or email to hydlife@thehindu.co.in

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