Serilingampally: Troubled life in rich IT hub

Hyderabad: The 98-sq km Serilingampally, home to IT giants, pays the highest property tax among all Assembly constituencies in the state — Rs 400 crore as property tax and another Rs 200 crore towards trade licence and registration fees. But not even 50 per cent of that money is being used to upgrade civic conditions in the constituency. The 10 divisions of the GHMC in Serilingampally have no drainage system; the old pipelines were installed by the gram panchayat decades ago and about 40 per cent of the area has no roads.

Most areas are now in the grip of frenzied construction activity and new residential colonies are springing all over but several civic problems remain. Mr Deepak Raheja, MD of a software company, said, “Garbage collection is ineffective due to the absence of bins. Bad roads are a perennial problem at most places.” He said potholes are repaired only after complaints. “Also, officials have been talking about a drainage network for a decade, but most areas are still without it,” Mr Raheja said. The request to extend the bridge at Allwyn Colony has been ignored for four years.

Additionally, there are many complaints about garbage disposal, low water supply and non-availability of footpaths across Hafeezpet, V.V. Nagar and Hydernagar. Locals also complained about water logging in colonies in Chandanagar and Hafeezpet.  AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu had to use his government’s funds to lay roads and install streetlights to his 10 acre-farmhouse located at Masjid Banda near the old Mumbai highway.

Constituency legislator Arekapudi Gandhi did admit that congestion, water supply, sanitation and drains were the prime issues. “We have identified 15 sites for construction of reservoirs and work is underway, the government had sanctioned Rs 290 crore. This will provide water to Kondapur, Seri-lingampally, Gachibowli, and Madhapur. Around 95 per cent of the constituency will be covered. “The drainage system needs Rs 300 crore and the laying of roads is the next priority after completion of water supply,” he said.

Serilingampally has three times more accidents:

Serilingampally also has three time the number of accidents that Hyde-rabad records. In 2015-16, Hyderabad city reported 400 crashes against 1,200 in Cyberabad. Most of these accidents occurred in Kondapur, Madhapur, Hafizpet, Chandanagar, Miyapur and Hyder-nagar, all of which fall under Serilingampally constituency. Traffic officials say Serilingampally has 60 km of damaged roads and for over 40 km there are no roads at all.

Deputy commissioner of police, Cyberabad traffic, A.R. Srinivas said most of the constituency’s roads were “not motorable”. “Under the Strategic Road Development Plan, an underpass is being built at Raheja IT Park. Another is a pipeline being laid from from MindSpace to the Lemon Tree hotel. Ongoing works at the Biodiversity Park are also an obstacle. These works reduce the width of the road,” Mr Srinivas said.

He said Gachibowli, Madhapur and the Mind Space junction were the busiest roads. “The GHMC is not able to maintain the roads. We have been repeatedly asking them to fill the potholes,” he said. Besides, the Cyberabad traffic police is understaffed, with a total of just 600 personnel.