Hyderabad: Police turn a blind eye to traffic gridlocks in Old City

Hyderabad: Commuters are daily dealing with gridlock in sub-roads, inner lanes, colonies, and small junctions, especially in the Old City areas. Many bikes, autos, and cars are stuck, during peak hours. The City Police Operation Rope is followed only on the main roads; locals are seen donning traffic police roles to clear jams on sub-roads.

Most sub-roads and circles are severely congested during the peak hours. Commuters and locals blame the police for not regulating traffic, at least in the peak hours. Commuters allege cops are busy capturing photos of traffic violators and not bothered to regulate traffic.

Various roads and sub-roads, including Santosh Nagar, Saidabad, Falaknuma, Shamsheergunj, Shalibanda, Moghalpura, Mir Alam Mandi Road, Baba Nagar, Chaderghat, Malakpet, Kishanbagh, Nampally, Mallepally, Goshamahal, Begum Bazar, and several other inner lanes in the area, encounter back-to-back gridlocks. Residents allege that despite many complaints to authorities, the issue has not been resolved.

According to locals, during the peak hours, roads turn horrible with bumper-to-bumper traffic. On many occasions, residents and shopkeepers play the role of traffic police to clear bottlenecks in various Old City areas.

“We have repeatedly requested to deploy traffic police but have been ignored. The entire stretch from the ACP Office in Edi Bazar–Talabkatta and Victoria Junction witnesses a gridlock and slow-moving traffic from morning till evening. We (residents) are frustrated with daily chaos in the area,” said Mohammed Moid of Moghalpura.

Moreover, the slow pace of work at the Santosh Nagar circle has led to a prolonged civic and traffic mess. This has also emerged as a major cause of traffic problems. While traffic snarls and jams have become the order of the day, the pace of work has left commuters and residents at the receiving end.

“Several roads in the Santosh Nagar circle, in the Yakutpura constituency, have been dug up; they witness massive jams. To avoid traffic, commuters enter inner lanes of colonies, resulting in gridlocks. We have to wait for long in traffic gridlock,” said Venkatesh of Old Santosh Nagar Colony.

Ifteqar Pasha, another resident, said, “The concerned officers, MLA, and corporator must make sure and take up works phase-wise, which will ensure less inconvenience to both commuters and residents. Every other road in the area and surroundings is dug up.”

Similarly, a slow pace of work is witnessed in Saidabad, Edi Bazar, Talabkatta, Moghalpura, Kishanbagh, Baba Nagar, and other areas.

“The traffic issue is further aggravated by encroachments by shops and vendors on the main carriageway. “The police only focus on main roads and junctions and impose violation challans. They must also intensify traffic rules in sub-roads to ensure a smooth flow of traffic,” said Vamshidhar of Falaknuma. Apart from narrow roads, encroachments and lack of police deployment make matters worse. Often locals get down from their vehicles to direct traffic. “We cannot blame traffic cops either because there are no traffic signals or road markings. If traffic police do come in, there is no place for them to even stand and direct the flow,” added Mohammed Ahmed of Himmatpura.