SAD STATE: Roads seen in bad condition from Ameerpet Gurudwara to Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar in the city. — PHOTO: SATISH. H

HYDERABAD: Mid-November and no signs of roads getting a much-needed, long-pending makeover. Contrary to the MCH Commissioner Sanjay Jaju's affirmation a couple of months back that road re-carpeting works would be taken up only in November when the rains abate, there seems to be no sight of fresh tar anywhere, barring a few stretches.

Vehicles rattling and kicking up a dust storm, plumes of dust rising up and bone-jerking rides continuing to be a part of life -- this well sums up the sorry state of city roads. At many places, they resemble war-torn zones.

Ditto with Erragadda, Borabanda and Ameerpet on the other end of the city, the posh Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills or the busy streets of RTC X Roads, Himayatnagar, Kacheguda or Chappal Bazar. The much-hyped highway to Hitec City too is in tatters.

Digging spree

That the city roads, in their entirety, did not receive a fresh coat of tar in the last two years is the irony. If the protracted stalemate over increased cement prices between the MCH and contractors took a huge toll on the roads, rains battered whatever was left of them.

A similar standoff between MCH and the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board over road cutting charges - the latter is on a digging spree of the city roads for over a year now to lay new water and sewerage pipelines - only worsened matters. The less said the better about stretches handled by the Roads and Buildings Department.

No wonder, a flustered Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy came down heavily on MCH officials for the battered state of the roads. "Will there ever be respite from this dust and dirty roads," asked Narsimha, a vendor on Ameerpet-Greenlands road. Anand Rao, resident of Isamiya Bazar, says there was a kind of resignation among people about the state of roads. "I do not see any hope. We have thick-skinned officials. These are the worst roads I've seen in my lifetime," he said.

And now comes the bombshell from Baldiya that bitumen was not being supplied to it for laying the roads. Can it get any worse?

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