Town planning goes for a toss; locals cry foul

Nizamabad: The population of Nizamabad district is increasing with each passing day. While the population of the city has touched 4 lakhs, the total population of the entire district is 25 lakhs. It is the third largest city in Telangana State.

However, there has been no tangible improvement in the infrastructure facilities, transport system or the sanitary conditions.

Although the town is 40 years old and it was upgraded into a corporation in 2005 from the level of a municipality with 50 divisions, town planning is totally absent with local political leaders and officials concerned showing no interest and remaining indifferent.

The town planning programme, which was formulated 45 years ago, is still in vogue today with no perceptible changes.

The conditions of the roads, which are highly congested and narrow are atrocious and motorists are finding it difficult to commute from one place to another.

Even the pedestrians are facing immense difficulties as there are no footpaths in the heavy traffic areas. People have become used to the frequent traffic snarls. People are wondered as to whether there were any town planning officials or not.

The officials of the town planning department who have to renew or formulate new plans every five years are not doing their homework properly.

Even after four decades, things remain unchanged though the population has grown at an alarming level without the proportionate increase in other civic infrastructure or amenities. Urban planning is very poor.

The Transport Department is in a total mess and has become dysfunctional in regulating the traffic which gets frequently disrupted.

There has been an abnormal rise in the number of vehicles in thousands but the narrow and congested roads remain the same. Motorists are scared to enter the town as they get caught for hours together in traffic jams in all the busy junctions.

Although the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao paid a visit to the city on August 7, 2014 and gave instructions to the district officials to take steps and develop the district magnificently, the officials have not shown any interest at all.

The officials of the Town Planning Department has made power point presentations in the presence of the Nizamabad MP K Kavitha, no action has been taken till now to develop the city, which remains poorly equipped with regard to providing civic amenities.

When The Hans India contacted the Municipal Commissioner Y Nageshwar on Thursday to seek his reaction, he admitted that the municipal corporation incurred huge losses due to lack of town planning.

He said that they were facing lot of hurdles in taking up the construction of new building. He said that they have entrusted the preparation of a new master plan to RV company and they have already readied the plan. A new master plan for Nizamabad city would come into force soon, he added.

Some of the locals like Sricharan blamed the officials of the municipal corporation for the frequent traffic snarls.

He said that there encroachments on the footpaths making it difficult for commuters to walk. Another local Prabhakar said that town plans should keep changing along with the rise in population.