Major Cause of Traffic Woes...

By Mohammed Younus

Lack of coordination seems to be the major cause of chaos in the management of city traffic and maintenance of roads in Hyderabad which has developed into a cosmopolitan city over a period of time.

Road safety has become a big challenge for the authorities these days even as efforts have been in place for the traffic management and safety of citizens. While the traffic police have been making all its efforts to ease the huge vehicular movement in the city, other aspects are hampering its work.

City Traffic Additional Commissioner Jitender said that traffic management in city carried out in three ways that includes enforcement, education and engineering of the roads.

He said that though the number of fatal accidents has come down over the past three years nevertheless the accidents’ figure was very high. “Percentage of road accidents in and around city has come down by 20 but it can be brought to lower level only if all the concerned departments work in coordination”, he added.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is responsible for maintaining and upkeep of about 8,000 KM or roads in its limits. Few kilometers of roads come under National Highways Authority.

GHMC Engineer in Chief Dhan Singh claimed that major roads in city were looked after by the National Highways Authorities. “Whatever we are ought to do we do for the laying of roads. Though an average life of a tar coal road is four years it cannot sustain for such long period in urban areas as lot of digging and other activities occur in cities.”

On the other hand illegal encroachments on the foot paths meant for pedestrians also lead to congestions and traffic issues and in some cases accidents, he added. There is a lack of coordination between various departments.

GHMC Chief Engineering Suresh Kumar however opined that the road safety of the citizens cannot be directly linked to bad roads. He rather said that city planning was most important to ensure the road safety.

“We have older sewerage, electricity and water services underground and if we extend the roads on the floor these services come in the middle of the current roads and that leads to various other issues” he said.