Hyderabad: Paucity of buses continues to plague Old City commuters

Hyderabad : The commuters who travel in State-run bus services in various parts of the Old City are now deprived of bus services. They face difficulties due to lack of public transport in different localities. The authorities have failed to resume the services which were discontinued during Covid-9 induced lockdown.

The TSRTC has reduced the frequency or abandoned several services one after another in parts of Old City. Some of the buses connecting important localities are completely stopped or diverted to new areas impacting the regular commuters.

According to locals, the TSRTC has decreased or removed several bus services, one after other, on the routes connecting areas like Uppuguda, Rajanna Bowli, Lal Darwaza, Chatrinaka, Gowliguda, SRT Colony, Yakutpura, Talabkatta, Vattepally, Nawab Saheb Kunta, Teegalkunta, Kalapather, and Shaheennagar and its surrounding areas, thus, causing suffering to thousands of people.

Thousands of passengers regularly travel from these areas. The residents comprise lower middle-class and middle-class people, who cannot not bear the expenses for travelling in an auto or a cab. “On several routes, the RTC management should rationalise the transport mechanism for optimum usage, rather than just cancel the buses altogether,” said Mohammed Ahmed, a social activist.

The passengers traveling towards Secunderabad, Mehdipatnam, Jubilee hills, Maula Ali, Hi-Tec City, Patancheru, Musheerabad, Sanathnagar and IS Sadan were able to reach their destination smoothly. Now, passengers are facing innumerable challenges, as they have to board the connecting buses from Afzalgunj, IS Sadan and Koti.

Private transport, particularly sharing auto rickshaws, which cover the routes are charging high fares, which lower-middle class families can barely afford. “Earlier, more than a dozen buses used to ply on these routes and the Charminar bus stop served as the transit point.

Ever since the Charminar bus stop was closed as part of CPP and was shifted to the Shalibanda X Roads, almost all buses were stopped from running on these routes,” said K Venkatesh, a resident of Lal Darwaza.

The students utilise bus services in several routes as there are many educational institutions in Koti, Narayanguda, Abids and Secunderabad. “Because of the non-availability of the buses, we are forced to send our children to the school in autos, which is a costly affair,” said Afzal Khan, a resident of Talabkatta.

The locals had the bus services including regular and minibuses like 75R (Rajanna Bowli to Koti), 75A (Uppuguda to Koti), 8U (Uppuguda to Secunderabad), 8R (Uppuguda to Alwal), 9M (Uppuguda to Sanathnagar), 65M (Charminar to Mehdipatnam), 127J (Charminar to Jubilee Hills) and many more were discontinued.

Venkatesh also claimed that following several complaints from locals on reduced frequency of buses, the residents also represented the matter to the local authorities of RTC and submitted a memorandum of demands to the Regional Manager.

Responding to the representation immediately, the official asked the DMO to hold a study of public utilities in these areas and ensure that the problem of the buses was solved, but failed to find a solution to the impending problem.