Rain Woes: Hitec City roads inundated

Hyderabad: A slight drizzle causes hours of congestion in Hitec city because of water logging on the main roads. Roads near Madhapur, Gachibowli, Hitex, Biodiversity to Cyber gateway to name a few are inundated adding to the commuters woes. With construction activity taking place close to the main roads, there are no alternate routes provided for commuters.

Adding to the problems is the lack of sufficient public transportation. With people opting for their own vehicles or cabs, the volumes just add up on the roads. While two-wheelers manage to cross through the flooded water, commute time doubles up for four-wheelers.

Mr Srikanth L, a software engineer working in Hitech city said, “After the mildest of showers drains spill over near Shilparamam opposite Hitex junction. Being on a two-wheeler I don't spend as much time as car folks do, but it gets worrisome if we catch infections due to the drain water. I got one last year wading through knee deep drain water.”

On a typical sunny day, the road allows smooth flow of traffic, but when it rains, suddenly overflowing drains appear. On Thursday night, Cyberabad traffic police were seen clearing water at several places. Another techie Ms. Renu Johri who uses company transport said, “There is uncertainty over using public transport. Whenever it rains, people of my shift (8:00 pm) and those from the next shift reach almost at the same time.”

Traffic officials point out that there are sudden surprises thrown by overflowing drains immediately after it rains. Mr. Vijay Kumar, Madhapur Traffic DCP said, “During normal time everything seems to be normal, but with a small amount of rain unknown issues come to fore and everybody including road users, traffic and civic body are astonished. Since lot of construction is going on, road damages need to be repaired immediately and debris lying next to road need to be cleared. Wherever drainage is overflowing or blocked it needs to be acted upon proactively, then only we can regulate traffic seamlessly.”

While emphasizing on restoration of roads, experts opine that public transport is not strong in the new city because of which people prefer cars. Mr. G S R Chaitanya, transport researcher says, “Public transport is not strong in Cyberabad as it is in other parts of the city. People are compelled to use their own vehicles which is leading to traffic. Besides, companies are also offering parking space. Frequency of buses have increased though and once Metro becomes operational, there can be reduction in traffic woes.”