Bear with bad roads, use public transportation says KT Rama Rao

Hyderabad: People need to bear with the temporary inconvenience as roads are being dug up for development activities, minister K.T. Rama Rao said on Thursday. 

He was speaking after laying the foundation stone for a three-kilometre long flyover, underpass covering the Botanical Garden, Kothaguda and Kondapur junctions at cost of Rs 263 crore.

He said, “Be it on social media or elsewhere, people are just asking about bad roads. Of the 9,000-km roads in the city and surrounding municipalities, 3,000 km are dug up for the water pipeline and various activities. Wherever you go, there is flyover, road or Metro construction activity. Evidently there will be temporary inconvenience. People need to understand, as we are not doing it unnecessarily.”

He said the Water Board was avoiding unnecessary digging and trying out trenchless and cured-in-place pipe technology to cause minimum inconvenience to road users.

He urged the people to use public transportation. “In Mumbai 70 per cent of the people use public transport but in Hyderabad it is only 34 per cent which is causing traffic chaos.” He said the government was working on enhancing public transportation be it RTC, Setwin, Metro Rail or MMTS phase 2. Once Metro Rail was fully operational, Mr Rama Rao expected 14 lakh passengers to use it every day.

Some commuters wondered why Mr Rama Rao had to set the foundation stone during the peak hours. A user, Aditya Agarwal, said on Twitter, “The event could have been done at the parking or entrance of botanical garden. It is not good think to block the whole lane during peak hour and letting common people suffer (sic)”.