West Marredpally roads still in the Stone Age

Hyderabad: There are 27 potholes, a manhole that has been overflowing for over 15 days and three broken speed-breakers on the West Marredpally stretch, especially from the police station towards St. Andrew’s School - Marredpally. The GHMC carried out repairs prior to the Ganesh festival in a few portions like opposite Heritage Fresh, but a few heavy spells laid bare the shoddy quality of the job.

There are potholes as wide as three metres in front of Gokul Restaurant and the famous Maisamma temple. The stretch has never been re-carpeted as a whole and the situation worsens after every spell of rain, especially near the LIC Colony. This particular stretch, from Stop and Go Bakery up to St. Andrew’s School, serves as a border for two municipal corporations, the GHMC and the SCB.

This area falls under GHMC’s 149 division and was won by Congress candidate, former corporator K. Saritha Yadhav and SCB’s Ward 4, won by TRS candidate P. Nalini Kiran. But despite two municipalities being involved, the road has always been in a pathetic condition.

K. Vikas, a resident of West Marredpally said, “The potholes near the Anjaneya Swamy and Maisamma Temple have often caused accidents. The road ended up like this after the GHMC took up a project of laying new pipelines for stormwater drainage.” Over a lakh commuters take this stretch as it is the main connectivity to AOC, Sainikpuri, Defence Colony, A.S. Rao Nagar and several other colonies in Marredpally. There are five banks and two hospitals too.

“During Ganesh immersion, the procession had to be taken through an overflowing manhole next to the police station, gravel was used to cover the potholes which causes traffic jams,” added M. Manohar, a resident of Radhika Colony. During the GHMC council’s term, the North zone division had sanctioned '50 lakh. However, since most of this stretch falls under SCB, it has been untouched.

P Nalini Kiran, ward 4 member of SCB said, “In the recent SCB board meeting, Rs 30 lakh was sanctioned for this road. It will be re-carpeted within a month after the tender process is done.” Earlier the contract for the road had been given to contactors Ram Chandriah and Sons by the SCB but the works have been delayed due to the rains. Another Rs 30 lakh has been sanctioned for the road from the Ganesh temple up to Stop and Go Bakery, and from Secunderabad Club - Ambedkar crossing up to JBS.