The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Ring road is any shape but round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 22, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Ring road is any shape but round

The Outer Ring Road, apart from the controversy surrounding it, is becoming fodder for a few jokes as well. On Sunday, while addressing a gathering of people affected by the project, it was CPI(M) State Secretary B.V. Raghavulu's turn to crack a joke at the HUDA's regular changing of the road's alignment.

"It is called an Outer Ring Road, so we should assume that the road is in the shape of a ring. But with the frequent changes in the alignment, it now resembles a break-dancer's pose, twisted arms, legs and all. If an MLA's plot distorts it at one place, a business magnet's plot makes it go out of shape at another point," he said. Break-dance now. What next?

It was the launch of Telugu SMS service and organisers had invited actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao and poet-producer M.S. Reddy to be the chief guests. Both praised the service, spoke of their love for Telugu and confessed about their ignorance of English.

"I went to school up to fifth form only and with much difficulty learnt English but not before suffering many embarrassments. It is the language of the world but it does not mean we forget our mother tongue," said ANR.

But, he knows little about cell phones. "My grandson loads all the numbers I need and I just dial," he said. As for Mr. Reddy, he does not even own a cell phone! Ahem... you think they SMS?

Who is responsible for traffic jams in the twin cities? Authorities seem to be having different opinions. Some say that it's the mismanagement of the traffic police that leads to jams and result in delayed operations of city buses while others argue that they occur mainly because of the haphazard way in which buses are driven.

While the authorities slug it out, the common road user knows pretty well the reasons for traffic jams. A general opinion is that both traffic police and RTC drivers can be held responsible for the slow movement of traffic or jams. While the police seem to be concentrating only on enforcing rules, RTC drivers are equally to blame. They stop buses right in middle of the road and drive rashly. Perhaps its time that both departments do some soul searching.

They say fortune favours the brave but it appears to have `boomeranged' on South Central Railway General Manager D. N. Mathur. In an attempt to check the intensity of the damage caused to the five bogies of Chennai-Hyderabad Express in the fire accident, Mr. Mathur suffered minor burn injuries. Though fire fighters and police personnel tried to prevent him from entering a bogie, he did not heed to their suggestions and clambered into the coach by wearing a mask and safety-jacket only to suffer burns on the feet. It was only Mr. Mathur who suffered minor burns and all passengers in the S10 coach jumped to safety without any injuries.

Dennis Marcus Mathew,

V.Geetanath,

K. Srinivas Reddy

and M. Srinivas

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh