Pothole-ridden road makes commuting a nightmare

Hyderabad: In the name of building road infrastructure using tax-payers' money, a large number of commuters are being put to great inconvenience with the extremely unplanned road works in Charminar Zone, especially on the Bahadurpura to Aram Ghar stretch, where two bridges are coming up simultaneously.

With the works of two bridges, which are 3km distance apart, in progress simultaneously, the commuters are forced to take bumpy rides with the roads filled with mud and potholes.

Though the Bahadurpura Bridge works are already in progress for several years, the works of the bridge from Zoo Park to Aram Ghar Bridge were grounded in September. This despite that a large part of works of the earlier bridge moving at a snail's pace.

The regular commuters, who are scared of choosing Bahadurpura crossroad due to perennial traffic issue given the prolonged nature of bridge works, are now aghast with the same pathetic condition of road near Shastripuram Junction, where another bridge works are grounded in the middle of the road recently that turned the 120- feet-wide stretch completely into a stretch filled with mud and potholes.

While the road has already claimed one life last week, it is haunting the commuters on the busy national highway. "To avoid the muddy and pothole-filled highway, I took a diversion from a narrow lane at Danamma Huts, another unmetaled road, to reach Shastripuram Colony. However, I fell on the road as this road too was not appropriate to drive safely," rued Syed Shoukat Ali, a resident of Shastripuram Colony.

"GHMC and SRDP are grounding works in an unplanned manner putting the life of road users in jeopardy with a development slogan like "your tax rupees are at work," said Mohd Mushtaq, another regular user of the road, adding that, "Is the taxpayers money being used to put their lives in jeopardy?"

"Road incidents, some even fatal, are frequently taking place near Shastripuram Junction. However, the officials are completely nonchalant to these crushing mishaps," he bemoaned.

It is pertinent to mention here that a new flyover project from Zoo Park to Aram Ghar is coming up with an outlay of total Rs 636.80 crore under Strategic Road Development Programme (SRDP) and after completing the soil testing process, the officials have now take up deep excavation on the stretch from Danamma Huts to Shastripuram Junction.