Hyderabad: One of the busiest stretches in the city – Mehdipatnam-Tolichowki-Shaikpet is experiencing relentless traffic jams at all hours. Spanning over 3 km, this stretch is plagued by a combination of slow-moving civic projects, dug-up roads, potholes and dust. Additionally, residents in the surrounding neighborhoods of Mehdipatnam, Tolichowki, and Shaikpet are facing significant challenges in their daily commutes, as the by-lanes get choked with motorists and every other lane is dug up for civic works.

Traffic congestion is a daily occurrence along this route, with an astonishing 80,000 to 1,00,000 vehicles navigating through it. Commuters face a frustrating ordeal as they attempt to travel this stretch, which also links to the bustling IT corridor which experiences bumper-to-bumper traffic jams and gridlocks.

Consequently, the road is currently overwhelmed with vehicles on both sides, leading to a chaotic situation, making it difficult for scores of commuters to travel on the stretch. The ongoing slow pace of works is creating a double whammy for the motorists.

According to observers, recently, the Hyderabad city police successfully removed the encroachments as part of Operation ROPE, but unfortunately, the recent civic projects by the electricity department have reverted the area back to its previous state.

Mohammed Nayeem, a resident of Samtha Colony, who is a regular commuter from Abids to Tolichowki, said, “The stretch from Mehdipatnam to Tolichowki shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes. But due to the works on the main road and inner lanes, it takes me more than half an hour to travel the stretch. For the past one week, there have been a lot of traffic jams and the commuters are frustrated.”

It has been witnessed that the works are going on at Mehdipatnam main road, inner lanes in the area, various colonies of Tolichowki, 7 Tombs road, Hakeempet and Shaikpet. The works includes Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP), laying of sewerage pipelines, box drains, laying new roads and underground wires among others in these areas. Of these, many works have been going on for the last several months.

“The laying of pipeline at 7 Tombs road has been going on for the past one year and there has been no respite from the traffic gridlocks. Daily, the residents and commercial establishments deal with long traffic jams, dust and potholes,” said Asif Hussain, a resident of Surya Nagar Colony.

“The traffic is so chaotic that the police also usually struggle a lot to regulate normal vehicular movement,” said Shahid Ali, a daily commuter.

Moreover, traffic jams continue to haunt commuters even after having two flyovers – one at Tolichowki and Shaikpet for them to ply. Despite immense difficulties for the public, the proposed road development projects in the Master Plan 2021 by the civic authorities still await nod.