Gayathrinagar residents robbed of tranquillity

Location of many schools in the area makes it chock-a-block during peak hours

Students, parents, pedestrians, vehicles and vendors jostle for road space. Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

Once a quiet neighbourhood, Gayathrinagar Colony on Pinnamaneni Polyclinic Road is being robbed of its ‘peace’ and tranquillity due to the presence of a large number of educational institutions located in the vicinity.

Cars stand bumper to bumper jostling for the rapidly shrinking residential space while in the peak traffic hours, this area is chock-a-block with students who emerge in multitudes from their school or college building, their parents waiting in queues to pick them up, a row of school buses (nearly 15 in number), pedestrians and a sizeable number of vendors selling junk food along the main road.

With a large number of educational institutions located in this area — three different branches of schools belonging to Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions besides a college, Bhashyam Public School and Nalanda School, the road users find it extremely difficult to navigate their way through the traffic snarl that has become the order of the day.

“We have been trying to impress upon the managements of these institutions to take note of our woes on account of the swelling crowds thronging this point every single day, but nothing concrete has come up so far,” rued D. Sambasiva Rao, president of the Gayathrinagar Welfare Association.

The association office-bearers met on Sunday to chalk out their future course of action in view of the problem becoming more intense by the day. In the evening, the limited road space is crammed with cars, buses and other vehicles. Many offices of private travels also are located in this area.

“In rainy season, we are forced to walk through slush that accumulates in the colony. I moved into my 1,600 square yard house in this residential area hoping to lead a quiet and peaceful life, but the situation here is anything but peaceful,” lamented Mr. Rao.

None of these schools has playgrounds and, interestingly, only one of the schools has permission.

“We have met the Municipal Commissioner and the City Police Commissioner seeking an end to this menace,” he said. The vexed residents plan to make a fresh representation to the Collector and the Commissioner of Police urging them to look into their woes and do the needful at the earliest. Association secretary Chukkapalli Sudha and others were present at the meeting.