Although it is pedestrians who face the maximum hardship due to the Metro Rail works, as is evident from their travails at road crossings, they will, no doubt, be the greatest beneficiaries once the project is operational. Thanks to poor transport facilities, they are currently forced to depend on overcrowded buses for commute.
Meanwhile, works are in progress for Corridor-I between Miyapur and L.B. Nagar, with pillars being erected and pre-cast segments fixed on them at Dilsukhnagar and Kothapet.
However, with road barricading in place, crossing the road is a nightmare for pedestrians. With quite a few divider breaks between Dilsukhnagar and Kothapet being closed, thanks to barricading, people have to walk some distance to find a break.
Even then, considerable time is lost before one makes it through the rush-hour traffic.
“Earlier, traffic cops would monitor the flow near Chaitanyapuri Crossroads, and that would make it easier for us to cross over to the other side. Now, they are hardly available. With nobody to stop the vehicles, we are left to fend for ourselves. To go to the bus-stop, I am forced to walk to the end of the barricading, cross the road, and walk back to the bus-stop,” complained G. Ram Reddy, a retired employee.
The situation near Kothapet fruit market and at Malakpet is no different. The HMR staff does little to monitor vehicles or help pedestrians. With the barricades eating into considerable road space, vehicles veer into the roadside, pushing pedestrians into peril. Lack of footpaths or free space on either side makes matters worse.
“Earlier, I would just cross over to the other side to sell tea at the shops. Now, I use a bicycle to do it, as the distance has increased a lot, and there is no traffic monitoring where crossing is allowed,” says Abdul, a tea vendor at Malakpet.
Pedestrians’ problems are compounded by the fact that vehicles coming from either side are as constrained to take a U-turn and do so only at locations where crossing is permitted.
