The city is not short of stretches riddled with potholes or dug-up roads, but the Krishna Nagar stretch near Jubilee Hills can easily qualify as the worst. For months now, the locals as well as the commuters have been put to untold miseries owing to the ongoing Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) works and underground electricity cabling work. If half of the narrow main road is occupied by construction material, then constant digging takes up a major portion leaving a very small uneven area for vehicles to pass through.
According to the residents of the area, the real problem lies in the lack of coordination and poor execution of works by various government departments.
“Motorists are being affected by the works and the condition of roads,” said Yousufguda Corporator G. Sanjay Goud. “I tried talking to the officials of GHMC about levelling the road at least, but they said that it has to be done by L&T. When I spoke to the company officials, they said that HMR authorities were yet to hand over the road to them. When contacted, the HMR officials did not give a proper answer and said that sub-contactors might be executing the works there. Nobody could give a convincing reply regarding the in-charge of the work or what they plan to do with this stretch for the next two years.”
The Corporator also said that drainage pipelines were damaged while drilling for road work due to which half of the area was flooded with sewage water. “When I approached the water board, they said it was not their responsibility since they did not do it. There is no coordination at all among different department because of which the area is in a bad shape.”
The local traders are also a worried lot.
“Our business has dropped by more than 50 per cent as there is no space to park vehicles nor any walkway. People are avoiding this route. If this goes on, we will suffer huge loss,” said B. Yashwanth, a local hardware store owner.
Here, traffic snarls and dust pollution have become a routine affair, so are accidents.
“I was witness to at least a dozen accidents in the last few days,” said K. Raghu, who works in a bangle store near Yousufguda indoor stadium. “The road is filled with gravel and is very slippery. Many bike riders have lost control, but have luckily got away with minor injuries. Since the vehicles move at a very slow pace, constant honking is also disturbing us a lot.”