Hyderabad: Traffic chaos rules in Old City

Hyderabad: The deployment of traffic cops in the Old City is minimal compared to other parts of the city. Most commuters in old city avoid following traffic rules. The largest part of the Old City area comes under the south zone in terms of traffic management, where only four traffic police stations i.e. Mirchowk, Falaknuma, Charminar and Bahadurpura are working. Fewer cops are posted to the south zone, which is not sufficient for the area at all. Traffic cops in the Old City do not concentrate on curbing traffic violations by commuters as they have to focus on regulating vehicles and removing hawkers during the morning and evening hours due to frequent snarls.

Commuters take advantage of the situation. They are confident that cops engaged in regulating the traffic will not take action against them even if they break the traffic rules and if the cops focus on checking the vehicles, traffic will jam and other riders will start a hue and cry.

It is observed that if the traffic police stop any rider for flouting traffic rules and try to impose a challan, he starts arguing with the cops and is not ready to pay. They force cops to speak with either some police officers or political leaders. Within half-an-hour, eight to 10 traffic violators who were challaned stand on the road surrounding the cops creating hurdles in traffic flow. This situation provides a chance of escaping to other bikers. Sometimes, political leaders reach the spot and start blaming the cops for targeting a particular section of society.

Many two-wheeler riders do not use a helmet in old city, but they use helmet if they have to go outside the old city. Motorists of the old city usually avoid going to places where traffic cops routinely stand for checking vehicles and use alternate routes.