Hyderabad: Commuters rue over razing of bus shelters

Hyderabad: Razing of bus stops for road-widening works including the National highway project in various parts of the city has raised a pique among bus travelers. While the travelers are facing difficulty in boarding and off-boarding buses as buses do not stop at the particular bus stop, authorities are mum on the issue and are yet to relocate the bus stops.

According to regular commuters, including students, office goers, laborers and residents who work in neighbouring places and districts, or return home using bus as a transport, earlier they would stand at a bus stop and wait for buses. But now in order to develop roads, bus stops are removed, leaving commuters stranded.

Commuters blamed that the RTC bus drivers are not stopping the bus at the bus-stop and are stoping where they wish to, leaving the passengers in distress. There were over 60 bus shelters/stops on both sides of various stretches including L B Nagar-Uppal stretch, Medchal-Bowenpally, Kukatpally stretch, Chilkalguda stretch, but all of them were demolished as part of road widening.

Rohil Shah, a regular commuter on the Medchal-Bowenpally stretch said that there are more than 10 bus stops which were removed as part of the road development. But it is the authorities duty to relocate the bus shelter.

"With lack of proper stop, the RTC bus drivers are skipping stops and people waiting for the bus are left stranded. Also, passengers wanting to get off from the bus at a particular stop were seen frustrated by drivers as they were skipping stops," added Rohil.

Divya Khatri, a student at Chilkalguda said that yes, our City has AC buses going towards various routes, many widened new roads and improved traffic systems. But all is not well for those who wait for public transport in the city. "Diminishing the importance of pedestrian safety measures and widened roads, people wait on roadsides and footpaths for buses. And hundreds of commuters travelling to their respective destinations are forced to stand on roads as there are no bus stops," she added.

Raghava from Medchal, who has complained the authorities about the non-availability of bus stops said that this issue has been going on for many years.

"Earlier, people used to stand under trees but after the development work by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), trees were chopped off and now bus shelters are also being demolished, thereby leaving us with no option but to stand on the road side," added Raghava.

Sources said that the bus stops can be constructed only after the completion of the road widening project. Involvement of various government agencies is needed for the construction of bus stops which will take time.