HYDERABAD: Motorists and pedestrians travelling from the stretch between Rajiv Gandhi statue in Somajiguda to Greenlands flyover heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday as the barricades placed in front of the chief minister’s camp office in Begumpet, which occupied a major chunk of the road, were removed. For the past many years, citizens have been lamenting that the fencing has hindered pedestrians and also been an obstruction to traffic.
Over 200 metre-long fencing, canopy sheds and a temporary security room were added to the existing barricades more than five years ago by encroaching a sidewalk and a major portion of the main road, earmarking it for the movement of the chief minister’s convoy on “security grounds.”
Blocking almost half the road space on one side of the median resulted in slowing down of the traffic flow and frequent congestion on this busy route. Initially, pedestrians were allowed to walk through this passage when the CM was away from the camp office.
The camp office has been renamed from Pragathi Bhavn to Jyothi Rao Phule Praja Bhavan and will be utilised for hearing grievances from the public. Though the issue of inconvenience to the people was raised on several occasions, the previous regime was hardly bothered and made citizens suffer.
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Now with the change of guard in Telangana, civic authorities on Thursday started removing the fencing. The GHMC with the help of scores of workers removed the heavy iron barricades separating the CMO from the public.
The initiative to remove the heavy barricading at the chief minister’s office has won people’s hearts. The opposition alleged during the poll campaign that it was the ‘Naya Nizam’s fort.’
Also, ever since the Congress was elected to power in the state, many netizens have been appealing for removal of the fencing, which was forcing pedestrians to walk on the road and run the risk of being hit by vehicles.
“This was the good thing that is happening for the city dwellers, the fencing has become an impediment to the free movement of traffic and on many occasions pedestrians got knocked by the moving vehicles,’’ Sai Krishna from Ranigunj said.
“Apart from creating an obstruction for the traffic, the structure turned an eyesore to motorists passing through the stretch. I appreciate the step taken by Revanth Reddy in the interest of the general public,’’ Suresh Kumar from Balkampet said.
Politicians elected by the people should know that they are public servants but not their own bosses immersed vested interests, Satya, a commuter passing through the stretch said.
This move is expected to allow public unrestricted access and facilitate smoother traffic movement in the area, another commuter passing the stretch said.
Initially, temporary barricades were put up by former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy before 2014. Pedestrians were allowed to walk through this passage when the CM was away from the camp office. But, when some agitators during the Telangana stir managed to reach close to the camp office to stage demonstrations, the police completely blocked one end of the passage by putting up massive steel barricades and barbed wire bundles.