Mettuguda residents aghast over GHMC officials' apathy

Mettuguda: Narrow internal roads, hanging wires, garbage dumped on open plots and nala encroachment are plaguing the residents of Mettuguda. The repeated requests to the officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and local leaders to address the issues have fallen on deaf ears. Locals said that their main concern is narrow roads which were laid 35 years ago. With several commercial buildings and residential apartments coming up in the area, the space for parking vehicles has decreased with many now parking their cars and motorbikes on the road side causing hardships to road users. Another major concern here is the encroachment of nala, due to which the area gets flooded whenever it rains.

"As this colony road is connected to various lanes and by-lanes of Mettuguda, every day it sees a huge traffic congestion. The 45-feet road has now become 25-feet due to illegal parking of vehicles on either side. The situation has turned so grim that during emergency even an ambulance finds it difficult to enter the lane. Many representations were given to officials concerned to re-carpet the road and stop illegal parking of vehicles. But till date, no action has been initiated," said Vinod Nambiar, president, Mettuguda Residents' Welfare Association. "The entire stretch of nala has been encroached upon. During rains, water gushes into several colonies causing inundation. Many times, we have requested the authorities to take stern action against the encroachers," said a local of Mettuguda. "We are vexed up with garbage dumping on open plots. The place where the electric transformer is installed has been turned into a minidump yard. We cannot blame the officials always; it is even the responsibility of residents to maintain their premises neat and clean. Apart from this, the dangling electric wires are posing a great danger to people. The GHMC is least bothered to solve our issues," rued another resident of Mettuguda.