Unplanned development at Badangpet is its biggest woe

Hyderabad: If there is one area that shows how unplanned development can take place without proper checks and balances as people rush to build businesses and homes, it is area that falls under the Badangpet Municipal Corporation (BMC). The area witnessed a steep growth curve ever since it was first declared a municipality five years ago and then upgraded to a municipal corporation.

These two developments, coupled with Hyderabad towards growing towards its outskirts resulted in haphazard growth and property development in the eight villages that comprise the BMC in Ranga Reddy district.

The massive growth also saw the likes of TCS and Tata Aerospace setting up their facilities in this municipal corporation limits.

As has been the case with several other gram panchayats around the city, Badangpet too was a witness to approval of illegal layouts. The result is that several colonies that have mushroomed lack infrastructure, particularly sewerage connectivity and suffer from narrow roads that span a width of 25 feet which are inadequate for current traffic load.

Next to lack of sewerage is the lack of public transportation. Though in the past some TSRTC buses plied up to Nadergul, particularly for carrying vegetables to the city’s markets such as Madannapet Mandi, the recent withdrawal of about 1,000 services has hit this area hard. Residents now depend on shared autorickshaws to reach the  Nagarjunasagar highway or the inner ring road from where they can catch buses.

“We have no bus facility or any other public transport system. We want the political parties to solve this issue”, Ravi Kumar, a resident of  Nadergul, employed at a private firm at  Jubilee Hills, said. “It takes hours sometimes to get to our destinations,” he said.

“The groundwater is getting polluted by sewerage. The roads connecting difference pockets need widening to accommodate increasing traffic,”  Suresh, another resident of Nadergul said.

Proper street lights, parking bays, piped water, contemporary sewer system, wider roads, public transportation are much in demanded by the public in this corporation limits.

The voters here appear fed up with lack of public transportation, and pathetic condition of roads. E. Mahipal, a resident of Balapur, struck a somewhat different line, saying “thanks to the democratic system and the Constitution which ensures compulsory elections to the local bodies, we have got CC Roads in the most of the colonies in our area.”

Despite many colleges coming up in the area, other than the 19 government schools, there are no government run colleges.

“Our municipal corporation falls under the constituency of the education minister Sabitha Indira Reddy. We demand government intermediate and degree colleges in this area,” one of the residents said.