Monday, April 9, 2007

From the pages of history part 1.

Here is a write up I wrote long back when I was in Hyderabad. I jotted down my daily struggle with Hyderabad traffic and came up with ideas which could have bettered the worsening situation. Later, I realized that Hyderabad did come up a fly-over which I had conceptualized in my blog.

Here it goes......

Traffic Blitz of Hyderabad

“What’s time honey?”
“It’s 9:30 am.”
“Ah! We are early to office today.”
“No, darling! We started last morning.”

This joke may seem to exaggerate the problem of growing traffic chaos in Hyderabad, but it’s a ground reality that traffic on the roads of the city looks like a flooded river carrying water over danger level.
City has grown by leaps and bounds over a decade and big money inflow gets reflected on roads too. I have seen traffic of Hyderabad growing exponentially in 10 months. I can’t help but notice that majority of 4-wheelers and 2-wheelers are relatively new. Unfortunately roads of Hyderabad have not expanded at the same pace.
Realizing the problem, authorities constructed a few flyovers and started MMTS train service but without any analysis and thought. Take the case of begum pet flyover which ends at Life style mall, we have a traffic signal ahead! Phew! One has to wait for signal on a fly over!
Moreover, I have never seen MMTS train carrying commuters more than 25% of its capacity. Reason? It runs on a route which does not have many commuters. Authorities didn’t take pain to gather statistics and data on number of commuters on various routes which are visible even to an average citizen like me.
I don’t have the official statistics but on the basis of my observation I conjecture that we have highest number of commuters on Ameer pet to Charminar route. To reduce congestion on that route, a train service analogous to MMTS could be started.
The second jam prone area is Panjagutta circle. Reasons? Too many Malls, stores, offices and C.M. House. Road is not wide enough to support the heavy traffic. It won’t be an overstatement if I say Panjagutta circle along with Somajiguda is coming up as Times Square of Hyderabad. Authorities too have started losing sleep over it, that’s why they are on a road widening spree in that very stretch of Raj Bhawan road. Footpaths have been engulfed; boundary walls of Walden, Sheraton and other complexes have been broken in the name of road widening.
But to one’s amazement, on one hand they are breaking walls of Walden which happens to be very next to CM residence and on the other they acquired the additional area outside the CM house and converted it into a lawn. If you don’t mind my asking, Mr. CM, do you have any explanation?
Traffic in Panjagutta circle is expected to increase more as more office space is coming up for lease. Not only a wide road but a double fly over is the solution to the problem.
If a flyover which starts from Life style, goes over Pangjagutta circle and ends at Banjara Hills is in place, we have got a solution. This way traffic coming from Begumpet flyover will actually get divided as roughly 1/3 of it goes to Banjara hills and Jublee hills and traffic going to Panjagutta would be reduced by half.
Last but not the least, we expect some effective measures to be enforced to tame the rash traffic going at sky- rocketing speeds. We Hyderabadies too should abide by traffic rules and make Hyderabad an easy place to navigate.

6 comments:

Anupam Hyanki said...

Lady,
Your wish has been granted. They are coming up with all new fly overs and roads everywhere in hyd. Bet, your ride will be as smooth as baby's bottom whenever you hit the city in future.

~Anupam

mbhave said...

Interesting.. saw your name on vanquishers blog. He and I do hold somewhat similar interests. Would you also please visit my blog on http://mbhavecorpblog.wetpaint.com
I would be obliged.
regards,
M Bhave

Zero Point SomeOne said...

Hi

Think you need to visit B'lore once and advise authorities here ...

Karun
k_sandha@yahoo.com

unforgiven said...

TII, get used to it.
It's easier.

DAWdLing dUd said...

looking at the roads of hyderabad makes me sad, really. Most of the points made by you are correct. Now most of the flyovers are completed or almost completed but all of them ,inherently, have same flaw. All of them lead from a bottleneck to another. Now getting stuck in a traffic jam on fly over rediculous, but happens only in hyderabad.

AAnkitg said...

hehe...i guess u shdu get used to the city...although i faced them just for 3.5 months during my internship...

Infact i thought one day i will ask someone to sit and shoot he whole process on the way to office...that wud have been experience of wht daily people face...u have to invent new skills to try n find shortcuts..to reach..on time...small roads tremendous traffic no traffic rules...

good observation although...
take care..buddy