Lodges, hotels jack up prices in Steel City

Hyderabad: All the lodges and private guest houses increased their tariff by six to seven times due to the mad rush for the rooms. The cyclone-hit residents fed up with the delay in getting power and water connections have begun moving into these lodges for little comfort for the children and elderly persons. As the rush began, the lodge owners began exploiting the situation citing that their input costs have gone up.

“We are buying water and diesel at exorbitant rates and we have no choice but to increase the room rent accordingly. The rush does not give us any extra profit,” said owner of a lodge located in RTC Complex. The lodges which were charging Rs 800 per day increased their tariff to Rs 3,000.

People, who got used to basic comforts, are willing to shell out some extra cash as the life without water and power became miserable in the steel city after the cyclone ravaged it.

“I have to presume I am on a holiday with my family members. I don’t mind paying some money for this, because my children haven’t slept for days,” said K Muralidhar, a bank employee living in MVP Colony. The government has been making repeated assurances that power and water would be restored soon. But they have not made anything about it so far. Many said they stopped taking these assurances being given by the government seriously and making alternative arrangements.

While the middle and upper middle class moved into star hotels and lodges, the average middle class began moving out of the city to their relatives living in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry and other parts of the State.

Meanwhile, the cell phone operators launched a mobile service for charging phones in different parts of the city.
Equipment loaded in auto-rickshaws was placed in different parts of the city where there was no power supply.

The media advisor to the government Parakala Prabhakar said the entire power supply would be restored in the city by Sunday. But it is unlikely, since the amount of work needed to restore power is beyond human effort.