HYDERABAD: Twelve
speed breakers
constructed on a 100-meter stretch on the
RK Puram road
by the local military authorities (LMA) have turned the commute towards Sainikpuri as a nightmare.
The 100-meter stretch leading from Army Public School (APS) towards
RK Puram
flyover is maintained by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (
GHMC) under the comprehensive road maintenance programme. On March 14, the LMA constructed multiple small speed breakers near APS after securing verbal permission from local traffic cops and Secunderabad Cantonment Board. However, the speed breakers have resulted in few accidents at the stretch.
“A teacher fell down due to the speed breakers and suffered a fracture on her hand. She is undergoing a surgery for the same. There were few other commuters who met with accidents due to these illegal speed breakers. If the speed breakers were meant to reduce accidents, they have clearly not met the purpose,” said Chandra Sekhar, secretary, Federation of North-Eastern Colonies of Secunderabad (FNECS).
Residents of Sainikpuri took to social media to express their angst against these illegal speed breakers and sought KT Rama Rao, municipal administration and urban development minister’s intervention. “@KTRTRS @DefenceMinIndia @greensainikpuri Speed breakers, which are 100 meters apart, are under construction near Army school on RK Puram road. This will badly affect commuters & result in huge traffic jam. Request you to either stop construction or open a spine hospital near RK Puram flyover,” tweeted Vijay Dabade. To this, KTR responded – “Request @arvindkumar_ias and @CommissionrGHMC to discuss with the local military authorities to find a quick solution.”
The GHMC authorities responded to this and demolished the speed breakers on Tuesday. “Constructing speed breakers without written consent from the traffic police and the local authorities in illegal. Since the LMA did not seek any written permissions, the same have been removed. It is not advisable to have speed breakers on arterial roads,” said Anil Raj, superintending engineer, Malkajgiri division, GHMC.
The authorities have decided to have a joint inspection of the stretch with representatives from APS, traffic police and Sainikpuri residents.
“We will conduct the joint inspection and then come up with solutions. As a measure, we intend to put more number of rumble strips instead of speed breakers on that stretch,” said Anil Raj.