Irked with long delays while commuting across the Hafeezpet-KBHP road in Hyderabad, unknown residents have renamed the road ‘KTR-IT-Park Road’ in reference to Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao. The banner carrying the name also has a message reading ‘safety at your risk.’
The road has several large potholes and becomes narrow at a point near the Hafeezpet railway station causing massive traffic jams all of which make it daunting for commuters. Furthermore, the stretch also has no streetlights or road signals installed by the authorities.
"It has been like this for months and we have made several representations to the government. The roads kick up a large amount of dust and this is really problematic to us, as we sit here all day," says a local shopkeeper.
“In the morning and evening during rush hour, vehicles literally come to a standstill at this stretch. The authorities must do something about it,” says Akash, techie who uses the road regularly.
Debris from an ongoing construction work for drainage widening has only added to the woes of the commuters, as large amounts of mud and stones have been dumped at the side of the road.
"We have been asking the government to complete the construction work and lay the road before the onset of monsoon. Last year too, we had faced a major issue with water logging a little further down the road. Water had gone so high, that even cars could not wade through," said Ramesh, another local in the area.
When TNM tried to contact Hafeezpet GHMC corporator V Pujitha Jagadeeswar, her husband, who is the corporator for Madhapur, spoke on her behalf.
"There are works related to Mission Bhagiratha being undertaken on that stretch, which is in the final stages of completion. In another fortnight, that procedure should be completed," Jagadeswar said.
"An 80-feet road widening has also been proposed to mitigate the traffic, which has been attached to the Roads & Building project department," he added.
The corporator also said that other projects were being undertaken, keeping in mind the expanding population and vehicle density on the roads, "Out of the total five projects being undertaken at a cost of Rs 530 crore to ease traffic in the IT sector area, two underpasses at Ayyappa society and Mind Space have been done. Three more projects including a flyover from Botanical Garden to KIMS hospital and from KIMS to Allwyn Colony are also in the pipeline.”
"KTR sir has taken personal interest in the initiative and we expect all these works to be grounded by June 2019, so that it will the clear the traffic congestion and ensure a smooth commute," he added.
This comes days after citizens in Hyderabad's Marredpally area took matters into their own hands and decided to repair a stretch of damaged road by themselves and had named it ‘KTR-Ivanka Trump Road’ to shame the government.
Within a week after the images went viral on social media, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) called for tenders and has begun work on the road.