Hyderabad: Residents of Methodist Colony and the management of St. Francis College are embroiled in a tussle about whether to break a boundary wall and build a gate that would benefit the college or not.
Says Sanjay Katodia, a resident of Methodist Colony, “The management wants to demolish a boundary wall and build a gate. We have over a thousand people residing in the colony. Street Number 2, where they want to build a gate, is already narrow. Opening up the wall would mean more thoroughfare and additional traffic on the already narrow space. This would be a huge bother for the residents. Residents of Uma Nagar where the college has a gate now, already face traffic issues. We certainly do not want the same thing to happen in our colony. It would ruin the peace.”
On the other hand, college authorities claim that the gate will be used only during the peak hours of the morning. With two entry points, there would be lesser congestion on the main road and this would only benefit the residents of the area.
“In the morning, over 4000 students rush to college in ten to fifteen minutes. We have tried to tackle this problem by using locals to manage the traffic but nothing has worked. It is not possible for so many cars to enter and exit through one gate after taking a u-turn in the college campus without creating a jam on the main road. Besides, at the end of the day, the road is public property so we should be allowed to demolish one of the boundary walls to build a gate”, says Atul Agarwal, legal adviser of St. Francis. He also said that, with the recent order of the High Court citing that roads in gated communities are not private or exclusive, the residents’complaints fall flat.
The residents and the management of the university have submitted letters to the corporation citing their reasons and the work has been temporarily stopped following the instructions of Ameerpet corporator Seshu Kumari.
According to her, “The work has been completely stopped as the management is in discussion with the residents. Hopefully the work can restart with the permission of the residents.”
