Hyderabad: Footpaths are meant for pedestrians to walk on safely. But even where they exist, they have been encroached upon by street vendors and business establishments, and two-wheeler riders who often ride on them to get ahead of the traffic. The latter can most clearly be observed at KBR Park near Jubilee Hills check post, where pedestrians are forced to walk on the road, putting their lives at risk. Though cement bollards were installed here, they were broken down by unruly commuters and GHMC, which installed the bollards, has done nothing about it.
George, a software employee who uploaded a video on Twitter of commuters riding on this footpath, told this newspaper, “At some places where there are cement bollards people have broken them and some places there are no barricades. Every day the scene is the same, especially during peak timings. Recently, a colleague walking on the footpath was nearly rammed by a bike and fortunately escaped without injuries. I approached the Jubilee Hills traffic police and complained about this.”
Mohammed Ali commented in a tweet “Hyderabadi Bikers have nice bikes good amount of money but sad they don’t have 250 gms of brain in the head. Police tries hard to activate the brain but when it is not there how can it activate (sic)”.
Inspector K Naveen Kumar of the Jubilee Hills traffic police station told this newspaper, “We have written lots of complaints to the GHMC about repairing the barricades and informed the concerned officials about the broken cement bollards .”
