Hyderabad: Lack of signages puts school children at risk

Hyderabad: There are no signage or speed beakers that may alert traffic to slow down and move cautiously in front of the Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Uppal. Parents have been insisting that the authorities should install pedestrian crossings and other signals for the safety of school children. 

When a correspondent from this newspaper visited the place, it was found that there was rampant illegal parking of private vehicles on both sides of the road in front of the school.

Meanwhile, RTC buses of No 300, which travel from  LB Nagar to Mehdipatnam stop on both sides of the school due to lack of space near LB Nagar Ring Road. There were no boards with School Zone written on them anywhere near the school or on the footpath adjoining the school.  

A parent who travels around 8 kms everyday to drop his son to school during peak traffic, D. Vinod said, “It would be better if there was a foot over bridge to cross the roads or a bridge which directly connected the Metro station to the school. It would enable children to commute safely.”

Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Uppal, P. Srinivas Raju said, “We have informed the concerned authorities about the problems like a zebra crossing, speed breakers, construction of footpaths and installation of signboards.” But they have not responded to our requests, Raju added. “We have been allocating duties to the teachers and group D staff to help the school children to cross the road,” he said.

However, when contacted, Uppal traffic inspector E Jangaiah said that he had not received any request for allotting a traffic constable. He said, “There will be a traffic constable on duty at Uppal Chowrasta to take care of any traffic problems. Since the road is NH 163, we cannot construct speed breakers on it. If the school authorities request for a speed breaker, we will forward the same to the authorities. Installation of signs does not come within our purview.”