Hyderabad: Narrow, congested roads a big no for four-wheelers

Charminar: 400-year-old, Old city is not just known for its pearls, biryani, nihari paya, craftsmanship, architecture, historical monuments, Lad Bazaar and restaurants but also for narrow lanes, where one cannot dare to take a four wheeler, even today.

The city has grown leaps and bounds in area and populace. Once called the walled city today is defined with hundreds of interpretations and definitions.

However, not all roads and lanes in the city have been widened which has put the citizens in apathetic conditions. Several areas in Old City consists of narrow roads which are being occupied by commercial outlets.

After the lockdown relaxation, and everything back to normalcy, the narrow roads in parts of the Old City have turned into traffic chaos. As the business establishments are occupying the road and footpaths for displaying their stuff and also utilising for parking. Resulting in traffic snarls every day. The commuters in the southern part of the city blame the narrow roads for the permanent traffic woes. They say that even the main approaching roads are much narrower.

At the center of Old City are the Charminar and region contains major neighborhoods of the city including Shah Ali Banda, Yakutpura, Dabeerpura, Afzal Gunj, Moghalpura, Malakpet and Falaknuma.

Most of the areas in the southern part of the Old city have decade-old narrow roads. These narrow roads have been eaten up by the commercial outlets. "The 4-km stretch from Edi Bazar to Moghalpura is a 30-feet narrow road, vehicles plying in the stretch move inch by inch as the road is occupied by the traders including furniture shops, readymade garments, etc. And the space meant for parking is being occupied by the advertisement banners and hotels, due to which the road turned into a traffic snarl," said Mohammed Moiz, a regular commuter on the stretch.

"The entire stretch had around 30 furniture stores which display their stuff on roads and the vehicles which carry these items are parked on roads. Due to which we commuters face difficulties," said Muzammil, another commuter.

The other narrow roads in Old City include Darulshifa, Bahadurpura, Shamsheergunj, Kalapatther, Hussanialam, Goshamahal, Mallepally, Asif Nagar, and the localities in the Karwan area. Most of these areas have now also turned into market vicinity.

One of the observers said "Neither the civic body nor the traffic police is concerned over the occupancy of roads. They have turned a blind eye leaving the commuters in hardships. They need to issue a challan for the encroachment and has to demolish the same," said Vijay Reddy, a resident of Karwan.

Whereas, one can observe that the roads in other areas there is a footpath, and occupying space on roads is strictly prohibited," he added.

"Even to cover a distance of a kilometer in these roads takes more than half an hour. It is a nightmare for commuters traveling in Old City," said Venkatesh, Congress party leader.

Though GHMC authorities have widened many roads in the Old City in the past decades, there is congestion in every direction, which leads to bottlenecks. "There are several master plans for Old City but have been kept on hold by the authorities. The city planners should demolish illegal structures occupying the roads by the commercial establishments," noted Venkatesh.