Citizens demand better public transportation system
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Hyderabad: The growth of the city towards the western side has resulted in change in travel patterns, and an increase in the demand for public transportation. The RTC has been trying to manage the huge demand from students and professionals and has now included new routes.
It is even redistributing services to meet the growing demand in the area. Three new bus corridors and 21 routes have been introduced over the last couple of months and more are being planned. According to RTC authorities, the Lingampally to Koti via Gachibowli; Koti to Patancheru via Miyapur and Kothaguda; as well as Bechupally to Waverock via Nizampet and JNTU are the new corridors introduced. The demand largely comes from people (not just IT employees) travelling along the IT corridor for work and students travelling to peripheral areas in the city.
Currently, there are around 850 services to the IT corridor and the peripheral areas. “The demand for connecting these areas to other parts of the city is growing at the rate of 10 per cent each year. Since some of the corridors are well-connected by MMTS, we are concentrating on connecting some of the less-connected corridors to interior colonies. There are as many as 1,050 colonies that have come up over the last few years in the western part of the city,” said a senior official from Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC). New stops near HICC, have also been introduced. “Many of the services are being reassigned on newer routes,” added the official.
More residential areas causing heavier traffic
The traffic density in the city’s west has increased significantly over the past few years, essentially due to the increase in the number of residential areas and the rise in the number of private vehicles.
However, the traffic police points out that the number of vehicles has gone up in the city. “As most of the professionals working in the IT corridor are either from other districts or states, they stay near their work space. Only a small section of IT professionals actually travel from different parts of the city. Therefore, most of the increase in traffic density is on certain routes only”.
“In the morning, the flow from Kukatpally-Miyapur side towards Gachibowli is heavy. In the evening, it is in the opposite direction. It is more in some areas like Vanasthalipuram and L.B. Nagar,” said DCP Cyberabad (traffic), Avinash Mohanty.
Decongestion plan only on paper
Though there is a huge demand for better rail connectivity and better railway amenities in the western part of the city, the decongesting plan, created as part of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authorities master plan, has not made much headway. The terminals planned at Hitec City and Moulali are currently pending.
There is demand for increasing both the frequency of MMTS as well as the number of terminals in the city’s west.
Currently, close to 70,000 professionals working in the IT areas commute to and from the IT corridor. The expansion of stations, however, has seen no progress due to the non-availability of land in these areas. These stations are also included in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authorities’ master plan and the state government needs to hand over the required land to the railway authorities.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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