Fateh Darwaza roads gridlocked by rampant illegal parking

Hyderabad: The residents and commuters of Fateh Darwaza, Himmatpura and Misrigunj areas in the Old City complained of the haphazard parking by the commercial establishments, including restaurants and hotels.

The residents blamed that the despite road widening, the road remains congested and traffic police turned a blind eye to the illegal parking of vehicles on newly widened road.

Many hotels, restaurants, other eateries in these areas have been violating the traffic rules by the haphazard parking.

According to the residents, with the widening of road, they expect to have a wider stretch to drive on, but illegal encroachments of these eateries are eating up the space, the road becomes narrow, and the passage continues to have the same bottlenecks.

Mohammed Khizar, a resident of Himmatpura, said that commercial establishments--especially hotels--are occupying two, three and sometimes even four rows of parking on the roads.

“Despite several complaints, the traffic police installed temporary dividers to ease traffic and issued warnings for serious action; however, the blockage continued, causing massive gridlock,” said Khizar.

Mohammed Khizar, a resident of Himmatpura, said that these commercial establishments, especially the hotels, are occupying two, three, and sometimes even four rows of parking on the roads.

“After several complaints, the traffic police has installed the temporary dividers to ease traffic and warned them of serious action, however, they continued to occupy the road leading to massive gridlock,” said Khizar.

Mohammed Ahmed, a local activist, said that these eateries and commercial establishments are creating chaos on the roads with haphazard vehicle parking. He added that although the roads were widened to ease traffic, they are now proving to be a problem instead of a relief.

“Despite several complaints, no action has been taken. This clearly shows that the traffic police are hand in glove with hotels like Ruman, Fateh Hotel, and other commercial establishments,” said Ahmed

.During the peak hours, due to the large number of vehicles occupying the road, each passing day the entire stretch turns chaotic. K Venkatesh, a commuter, said, “As there are couple of schools colleges and three hotels, with the illegal parking in the stretch, it causes traffic gridlock and commuters regulate the traffic regularly,” informed Venkatesh.

The traffic police must take action against them and take immediate measures to bring the widened road in use for vehicular traffic,” said Muzammil, a resident of Misrigunj.