Broken roads claim third life in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The city’s broken roads claimed another life on Friday. Bora Arun Kumar, 26, who was riding pillion, fell from the bike when his cousin applied the brake suddenly at Kukatpally Y-junction to avoid hitting a scooter that had slowed down to avoid a bad section of the road. Arun died on the spot.

The road, which was earlier maintained by the National Highways Authority of India, was handed over to the Hyderabad Metro Rail due to the ongoing Metro works.

Since September, the city’s roads have claimed three lives at separate locations.
Arun, a native of Srikakulam who had completed his M.Tech, was searching for a job and doing software-related courses at SR Nagar. On Friday morning, he along with his cousin, software employee K. Somashekar, was travelling to the training centre at SR Nagar on a bike.

Bad road was ‘sole cause’ for mishap
When they reached the Kukatpally Y-junction, a scooter ahead of them slowed down at a battered section of road. “To avoid hitting the scooter, Somashekar applied brakes. The bike fell and Arun, who was riding pillion, was flung to a distance and died on the spot,” said Kukatpally sub-inspector K. Naidu.

Mr Mohammed Waseem, an autorickshaw driver who witnessed the accident, said that he saw both two-wheelers slowing down and the second vehicle falling down. “Bad road condition was the only cause of the accident. Had the road been better, the accident could have been averted,” he said.

“Due to the recent road damage, we have got a sanction of Rs 40 crore for repairing roads on the Metro stretches. The work will begin soon,” said NHAI superintending engineer Dr C. Vasantha. HMR officials said the tender process for repairing roads was almost finalised and work would begin soon in coordination with NHAI and GHMC.