NO WAY OUT?: With the Charminar pedestrianisation project getting delayed, foreign tourists and the general public are facing inconvenience due to traffic chaos. Photo: Satish. H.

Hyderabad: Want to get an eyeful of Charminar? Banish the idea. If you are not careful, a speeding vehicle might run over you. The chaotic traffic here doesn't allow a leisurely appreciation of the city's most famous landmark. Tourists are left searching for a cosy corner to stand back and relish the architectural splendour of the monument.

The Government's pet scheme to decongest Charminar has not helped matters much. The Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP) remains as confounding as the traffic swirling around the hoary sentinel.

Ground reality

Plans, blue prints, power point presentations and, of course, the blame game. That's the fate of the project during the last six years. A Charminar sans the honking traffic and a buffer zone remains just a pipedream.

The inordinate delay in execution of the project has escalated its cost from Rs. 139 crores to Rs. 200 crores. Authorities at the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) are confident of completing both phases of the project by March 31, 2006. But the ground reality belies this.

Road widening, the major component of the project, remains incomplete. Of the 1,131 structures identified for removal, only 729 are dismantled during the last five years. On the other hand, the amount of road widening done in Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills during the last one month is amazing.

Nizam properties

On the Charminar-Falaknuma road, 162 properties are yet to be taken over, Gulzar Houz-Panjesha 91, Miralam Mandi road 44 and Lad Bazar Adnan complex-Gulzar Houz road 49. Nine properties belonging to the Nizam on the Mir Momin Daira road have become a bottleneck.

"The matter is referred to the district Collector to verify their ownership," says Muzaffar Husain, OSD, CPP.

The delay in implementation of the project is attributed to the State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) not shifting its entire operations to the new depot at Falaknuma. The latter, however, maintains that this is not possible unless necessary infrastructure is created. Other stakeholders in the project are yet to do their share of the work. It is only recently that the HT wires on the Patharghatti road have disappeared but the underground cabling on the Lad Bazar stretch is yet to be taken up. The BSNL has neither shifted its cables nor set up Internet kiosks on the Lad Bazar road.

Lot to be done

Creation of parking lots, street lighting, uniform signage, restoration of Patherghatti façade remains a non-starter. Formation of a buffer zone around Charminar involves dismantling of 35 shops, 24 on the Lad Bazar side. With none ready to give consent, the cumbersome process of land acquisition is under way.

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