HYDERABAD: The swanky facade of Gachibowli with high-rise buildings can fool anyone, but a peek into the bylanes of the area narrate a different story. Open drains and kacchha roads mark the inner areas, forcing the residents to live with very low sanitation amenities.
The locals say that the last time roads were laid in the area was during the tenure of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh CM, the late YS Rajashekhara Reddy. The fruits of urbanisation that engulfed the portions with presence of IT companies failed to reach them in the subsequent years.
"It was back in 2007 when these roads were laid and now they are worn out. Even promises to have underground drainage systems installed in our area were stalled," said P Rajaiah, a resident of Nallagandla village. With no underground drainage system and outlets for drains to flow out, the drains either end in open lakes or at the few sewerage treatment plant (STP) operational in the ward.
When Express surveyed the ward, it was found that two major projects worth about `67 lakh to construct drains and lay roads at Gopanpally thanda and Nallagandla village have not taken any shape even after eight months of laying foundations.
Colonies like NTR Nagar, Nallagandla village, Gowlipura Dhodhi, a part of Tellapur and Gopanpally village are the worst affected due to this problem, causing increasing cases of fever reported in the area.
"Due to the open drains, mosquitoes continue to breed and there are a lot of people who fall ill due to this. No chlorination or repellants are used in this area," said N Peter, a resident of Gopanpally.
When contacted, K Saibaba, corporator of Gachibowli, said that the problem has been persisting in entire Serilingampally constituency.
"During the month of August when we laid foundation stones at several of the affected areas, it was just after GST. The tenders were called without the inclusion of GST and that made the contractors lose interest in the work," he said.
Traffic too continues to be a nightmare for the techies who reside in the area as the new traffic police station created to exclusively monitor vehicular movement is of no use, they say.
"Though there is a new station with, maybe, additional deployment of officers and constables, there is rarely any traffic personnel in this area," said M Chaitanya, a tech professional who works at Q City in Gachibowli commuting between HCU and Q City. "My usual commuting time of 15 minutes stretches to 40 minutes during peak hours which has not changed for a long time now. I guess the purpose of the new station is defeated," he said.