Hyderabad: Buses bring back chaos on road

Hyderabad: With Telangana State Road Transport Corporation employees calling off their strike, chaos is back on the city roads. Adding to chaos are those driving rashly and on the wrong side. Buses swerving from one end of the road to another at bus stops to pick up passengers were a common sight. There were many cases of school buses entering small and narrow lanes.

“We enter narrow lanes only because we have to pick up and drop children at their doorstep. Otherwise, parents would kick up a storm,” said A. Mallaiah, driver of a school bus attached to a prominent school in Banjara Hills. Owners who lease their buses to schools feign ignorance of how their vehicles are driven.

“We are only concerned about the vehicle’s fitness. We cannot be held responsible for rash driving if the school management hires someone irresponsible,” said Thatikonda Krishna, an owner of a few school buses leased out to schools within the city.

As it turns out, 1.57 lakh cases have been booked until last month against driving on the wrong side in the city. Motorists like T. Raghav, a resident of Trimulgherry, say most of wrong-side drivers are two-wheeler riders. “They look to avoid longer journey or crowds around U-turns and drive on wrong side of the road to take a short cut,” he says. Such riders do not even bother about wearing helmets, lest something may happen to them.

Bikers’ clubs in the city, however, claim that none of their members ride without helmets. “It is wrong to say that bikers of our group do not wear helmets. We do not even allow them to drive on wrong side of the roads,” says Madan Sai Nagilla, a biker.

According to the traffic police, areas like Trimulgherry, SR Nagar, Punjagutta, Falaknuma, Sultan Bazar, Asif Nagar, Malakpet and Kacheguda are notorious for highest number of violations by two-wheelers.

Incidentally, Hyderabad Traffic Police collected `20.36 lakh as fines for red-light and speed-gun violations so far in 2019.