Hyderabad: An increase in single-occupant vehicles during the rainy season is causing traffic congestion in Cyberabad. Adding to the chaos is the construction activities of the Metro Rail and Strategic Road Development Plan flyovers that are taking place in the zone, especially at Raheja Mindspace. Both these activities will span over the next year.
The I-T corridor has more than 10 lakh people commuting every day, of which six lakhs are I-T employees and more than four lakhs are people in support services. In each shift at least three lakh people are commuting on these roads.
Consequently the number of vehicles coming out in rainy season is more as people are neither sharing rides nor using public transport.
According to Madhav Pai, India Director for WRI Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities, 90 per cent of road space is used by vehicles while five per cent is used by the people.
A techie Mr Chetan Reddy said, “It’s absolutely true that we prefer to come by car especially when it rains, as we don’t want to get dirty. Four wheelers can easily move even if it rains, while on a two-wheeler we would need to stop and also get drenched.” Traffic officials are requesting commuters to take public transport, share rides and use alternative routes.
Mr Sandeep Singh, who is a project manager in an MNC, said, “In my team, the bachelors share rides using Ola or Uber. Surge pricing and traffic snarls make us use our own vehicles as it becomes cheaper than radio cabs. We need to start hours before our login time and own vehicle offers the flexibility to go off without thinking of a travel schedule.”
However, traffic officials are requesting people to use public transport as this will reduce the congestion on the roads caused by many vehicles.
“People should make the most of the free shuttle service like She shuttle and Cyber Shuttle. We are in discussions with RTC to increase the buses also,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (traffic), Madhapur zone, S. Jayaram said.
Meanwhile, traffic police has identified the water logging points and streamlined them in several places in the I-T corridor. There are some places which are yet to be identified and work is in progress along with GHMC monitoring. Due to the construction activity most U-turns are bottlenecks.
