HYDERABAD: With scores of training institutes, coaching centres and shopping malls surrounding the main road of Ameerpet, traffic has always been an issue and with road diversions in place, pedestrian safety has become a cause of concern in this ever-growing busy locale. In the absence of a footpath worth its name, zebra crossing lines or foot overbridges, crossing the road has become a nightmare.
To add to the pedestrians’ miseries, medians are being constructed, making it impossible for one to walk across the road.Often, youngsters are found sprinting across the road while the elderly wait for Good Samaritans to lend them a helping hand. The 2-km-long stretch from Maitrivanam junction to Punjagutta junction has no zebra crossing lines or a traffic cop to regulate the fast-moving traffic. Worse, the road has three U-turns, resulting in a large number of vehicles clogging the right lane of the road making it risky for a pedestrian to cross the road. The stretch from Maitrivanam to Kukatpally is equally dangerous but mercifully the metro construction work there is over.
“It is a short sprint every day to cross the road from one end to another. In the peak hours it takes at least five minutes to get to the other end. There are vehicles which also move on the wrong side making it even more difficult for walkers,” said S Krishna who travels from Koti every day to work in a private company at Pavani Prestige in Ameerpet.
The foot overbridge, which existed earlier, was a solution to the pedestrian crossing problem but it was removed to pave way for metro rail. “The foot bridge was a very safe way for us to cross the road. Now, it is like a roller-coaster experience crossing the road along with my children every day,” said D Vijaya.
With the median construction to complete very soon, lane crossing will become all the more difficult forcing people to walk at least a kilometre longer to reach the nearest U-turn, she added.
Police say that it is because of the metro rail construction that there are no zebra crossing lines. “The delay in metro rail construction is the reason for zebra crossing lines to disappear. We have been assisting people during the peak hours to cross the road,” said Santosh Kiran, station house officer, Punjagutta traffic police station.