HYDERABAD: It appears as if one of the things that might affect the TRS’ vote share is the lack of focus on the infrastructure in the southern and eastern parts of the city, especially the quality of roads, potholes and lack of link roads.
IT employees, who have to travel to HiTec City daily from various parts of the twin cities, claim that though road development in western Hyderabad is a dynamic and efficient process, those living in Old City, Nagole, Alwal, LB Nagar and Shameerpet areas have been struggling with potholes, open drains and manholes for the past few months, after the monsoon season.
In addition to the quality of roads, local residents also claim that flyovers, for decongestion of traffic, is also limited to the western part of the city as most of the investments is in this area.
Even in this situation, both younger and middle-aged working-class generation are still willing to put their bets on the pink party, as they are not swayed by the saffron party’s religious claims.
Many young working adults, who were eager to see BJP prove to be a strong Opposition, were disappointed after party chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s claims of making the GHMC pay challans and Bengaluru MP Tejaswi Surya’s declarations to rename the city.
Speaking to Express, Srivastava Murali, a resident of Sainikpuri, said: “Road infrastructure in very well maintained areas like HiTec City, Kondapur, Manikonda and Financial District is fabulous as majority of foreign investments happen in these areas.
A pothole that crops up one evening is fixed in less than 24 hours. However, older residential areas of the city have not witnessed the taking up of any such works, though it has been months since the monsoon ended, even after the residents raised complaints after complaints regarding potholes and open drains. It takes almost half a year before any repair works start.”
Adding to this, K Sasidhar, an employee from HiTec City, said: “Apart from repair and road maintenance works, link roads, bypasses and flyovers are restricted either to western parts of the city, or areas like LB Nagar, where vehicles move out of the Hyderabad border. However, the central and southern parts of the city need to be decongested immediately for smoother traffic flow.”
In the meantime, the older generation too is banking on TRS, while being philosophically inclined towards th BJP’s politics. K Anuradha, a 50-year-old employee residing in Punjagutta, said: “While people are agitated about the lack of civic work done by the TRS, the citizens of Telangana have an emotional attachment to the party for its work in ensuring the formation of the State.
In addition to that, BJP has not done any work specifically in Telangana to be able to counter the little work that has been done by the TRS. The Old City will vote for the MIM, while the rest will go with TRS. BJP will be able to retain very few seats that it has been winning over the past few years and nothing new.” A chunk of both age groups did not even consider Congress to be a strong opponent.