Latest News For 'Hyderabad'
May 14th, 2007
Secunderabad has got the tag of a being the ‘other’ city. While the state government and civic authorities have gone about sprucing up posh areas and IT parks, it forgot about Secunderabad, once a flourishing British cantonment.
Secunderabad has been primarily a residential part of the twin cities, with unique laid-back bungalows helped along by an
expansive green cover. But the rapid urbanisation has played havoc here with bungalows giving way to multistoried apartments and shopping complexes sprouting just about anywhere. This man-made disaster is due to the combined neglect of the municipal authorities, Cantonment Board and traffic police.
Traffic bottlenecks in Secunderabad are mainly at three points: CTO junction, Patny and YMCA. The two flyovers at CTO and Parade Grounds are of little help as they merely serve as cross-over points instead of distributing traffic into the feeder roads.
The flow of traffic interestingly is different in the mornings and evenings, as office-goers move at a snail’s pace in the mornings from Rasoolpura to Greenlands, Punjagutta and on to the new boom town, Madhapur. In the evening, the flow is in the reverse direction. And herein lies the root of the problem as traffic personnel seem to be unaware of this uni-directional flow. The traffic signals should be timed and synchronised according to this flow of traffic.
Another factor leading to the jams is the blocking of certain key roads by the army, ostensibly for security reasons. The Mornington Road connecting RTA office, Trimulgherry to Military Hospital could be used as an alternate route for motorists going to RK Puram, and Sainikpuri reducing the load. Presently, only army officials and civilians working in the army establishments are allowed to use the road.
Again, trying to understand traffic signals at Jubilee bus station requires high-end education as signals seem to work at cross purposes. Signals turn red, amber and green with no logic and road users are left a confused lot.
Further up, the road which connects Secunderabad Club to Safilguda, Malkjagiri and Neredmet, is a complete mess and traffic here moves at a snail’s pace. In this section, the stretch of the road from Secunderabad Club to Ghanshyam supermarket can test the bone density of even the toughest men and women.
The increasing number of fast food restaurants and factory outlets from Vikrampuri to Karkhana and on to Trimulgherry is also said to be a reason for traffic blocks. These outlets have used their cellars meant for parking for shops and customers are left to park their vehicles along the road.
An important stop like Karkhana has no bus bay and commuters take shelter in the Satyam office nearby. In fact the road at Lothkunta leading to the Presidential abode of Rashtrapathi Nilayam has no bus bays, and RTC buses bunch up in the middle of the road leading to massive jams from Lal Bazar to Alwal. The absence of traffic policemen at major traffic intersections is one of the main reasons for traffic chaos in the evenings.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad epaper)
May 14th, 2007
Hyderabad: In connection with the re-dedication day and culmination of prajapatham programme at L B Stadium, traffic diversions and restrictions have been imposed in the city from 8 am to 6 pm on Monday. Traffic will not be allowed towards BJR statue from AR Petrol pump junction and will be diverted towards Nampally or Ravindra Bharathi.
Traffic from Abids and Gunfoundry side will not be allowed towards BJR statue and Basheerbagh junction. It will be diverted at Gunfoundry towards Chappel Road. Traffic from Basheerbagh junction to GPO, Abids, will be diverted at Basheerbagh junction towards Hyderguda and King Koti Road.
Traffic from Old MLA quarters towards Basheerbagh will be diverted towards Himayatnagar junction.
Traffic coming from Rajmohalla Road towards Old MLA Quarters will be diverted at Cemetery junction towards King Koti or Narayanguda. Traffic from Basheerbagh to traffic control room will be diverted at Basheerbagh junction towards Liberty.
Traffic from traffic control room towards Basheerbagh junction will be diverted towards Nampally Road. Following are the parking arrangements made by the traffic police: Vehicles coming from Mahbubnagar and Srisailam Road should be parked at Exhibition grounds. Vehicles from Nalgonda and Warangal must be parked at NTR stadium near Indira Park. Vehicles coming before 6 am from Nalgonda and Warangal districts will be allowed to park at Nizam college grounds.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad epaper)
May 3rd, 2007
HYDERABAD: The roads in Andhra Pradesh have turned into veritable death-traps as more and more accidents are taking place than ever before in spite of sustained campaigns for road safety.
The data complied by the Andhra Pradesh Road Safety Authority (APRSA) for this year show that the accident rate involving all types of vehicles is on rise in the State. Everyday, on an average, there were 131 accidents in January and February this year. Thirty-six persons lost their lives and 179 were injured. The corresponding figures last year were 117 accidents, 34 deaths and 164 injuries.
The Reasons
The rising accident rate is chiefly attributed to speeding, drunken or rash driving and lack of staff to enforce safety measures and the total absence of coordination among the connected departments/agencies concerned — police, transport, health, roads and buildings, the Panchayat Raj and civic bodies.
The Government has toyed with the idea of making the APRSA a powerful body headed by Chief Minister to ensure better coordination among these departments in line with a U.N. resolution to avoid accidents. But it remains on paper even after five years.
A Bill drafted for extending legislative support to the road safety authority “has not seen the light of day,” regrets a senior official. As a result, highway patrol is entrusted to a mere 60 Qualis vehicles which, by all standards, are considered junk. The requirement is for over 500 vehicles.
For the two-month period this year so far, the Hyderabad urban police district topped the list with 625 accidents, followed by Cyberabadthat skirts it (594). The highways join the city as high traffic corridors from Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur and Vijayawada and the drivers tend to pick up speed suddenly after crossing a maze of traffic snarls in the city limits. This also leads to accidents.
East Godavari, Nalgonda and Medak, where national highways criss-cross, rank next with 414, 392 and 364 accidents. Last year, Hyderabad reported 3,459 accidents with 424 deaths, Cyberabad 3,716 9 (1,036) and East Godavari 2,392 (661).
Neighbours’ Cases
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have a higher vehicle population but their accident rate is much lesser. There are many suggestions to keep the accidents under check — re-installation of “speed-governors” on RTC buses, a strict observance of speed limit in the urban and residential areas and stringent punishment for drunken/rash driving but the implementation is lacking.
Source : Hindu
April 25th, 2007
With the young accounting for the majority of the over 1000 deaths on the roads of Hyderabad, it is time for alarm bells to start ringing says Roli Srivastava.
Zipping through the city’s open roads late in the night, a few pegs down and feeling light, enjoying the soothing breeze after a long day at college or work and just when the friend on the pillion compliments the ride as “cool” comes the fatal crash.
“Two dead in a road accident” could be a routine news report headline but now such isolated road accident cases have been put together to conclude that road traffic accidents are now the most likely cause of death of those aged 15 to 19 years.
The concern of the loss of young lives on the road is clearly global (and not just Hyderabadi) with the United Nations kick starting its first Global Road Safety Week on Monday, April 23, “dedicated to young road users”. The United Nations in its message for the week notes that road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 24 worldwide, a statistic reflected most tellingly in Hyderabad.
Road accidents leading to death in the city are more routine than rare. The first 23 days of April alone have witnessed as many as 21 deaths in the twin cities, over 80 per cent of the victims in their late teens or in their 20’s.
Traffic police officers say the number of deaths due to road accidents in the city have been rising, with the number rising from most significant contributor to the statistics of road traffic accidents of Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, AP holds the disturbing distinction of reporting the highest number of road accident deaths in the country.
Needless to say, the young form a large chunk of these seemingly dry statistics. “The most economically active and productive age group is the biggest victim of road accidents,” says Dr C K George, director of the city-based Institute of Health Systems (IHS), which is conducting a three-year-long study on the city’s traffic situation sponsored by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
According to Dr George, the highest number of victims for both road accidents and related deaths are aged between 21 and 25 years followed by those between 26 and 30 years. “Of the 50 accident cases we get every week, 80 per cent are in the age group of 20 to 50 and over 20 per cent are aged 20 to 30,” says Dr Hari Prasad, CEO, Apollo Hospitals.
The deaths in this age group are predictably due to the behaviour pattern of the young on the road. Two-wheelers account for the most traffic violations in the city and a large chunk of violators are teenagers or those in their 20’s.
For its road traffic study, IHS had installed ten CCTV cameras to record traffic violations and “counted hundreds of violations every minute” which included jumping signals and driving on the wrong side of the road (see box).
Traffic police officials couldn’t agree more with the study. Cases of drunken driving, for instance, have touched an all time high with the traffic police scouting for drunk drivers with breath analysers.
Additional commissioner of police (traffic), Hyderabad, M Punna Rao says that 993 cases of drunken driving were registered in Hyderabad in the first three months of 2007 by his department. If this number sounds huge, consider this: the Cyberabad traffic police registered a whopping 4,756 drunken driving cases in less than two months (from March 2 to April 23).
“We are booking 150 to 200 cases every night using ten breath analysers,” says V Ashok Reddy, Cyberabad deputy commissioner of police (traffic). However, he laments the “utter disregard for traffic rules” among citizens and notes that despite the vigilant check the number of accidents refuse to decline and are in fact on the rise.
While the city’s vehicular population has gone up by an estimated 50 per cent in the last five years and is clearly a major contributor to road accidents (for every 1,000 vehicles, there are two to three accidents on the road), the road widening drive too has added chaos to confusion resulting in more deaths on the road, say traffic police officials.
The rapid growth in Cyberabad too has led to a steep rise in the number of road accidents and deaths. “Cyberabad has undergone rapid urbanisation with more IT and ITeS companies opening here. The vehicular population has increased manifold and new roads have come up. Moreover, the city outskirts now have several pubs and resorts,” reasons Ashok Reddy for the higher accident rate this part of the city has witnessed in the recent past.
However, not all is bad news. While the traffic police could be wondering whether its enforcement of traffic rules has had any effect, the IHS study and hospitals note a drop in the number of deaths due to accidents, particularly those involving young people over the last couple of months.
“The accident cases we get mostly involve young people in an inebriated state. But there is a sudden drop in such cases ever since the traffic police has intensified its check on drunken driving,” says a senior official of Yashoda Hospitals.
Another reason for the drop in accident related deaths could be the emergency services that are now on offer more visibly by private hospitals, taking care of the crucial ‘golden hour’— the one-hour time period following an accident. About 50 per cent accident cases make it to the hospital during this one hour, a vast improvement from the past when accidents would result in deaths due to delay in treatment.
Nevertheless, death and injury on the road is being viewed as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and not only for health concerns. “Each year, road crashes in low-income and middle-income countries cost US $ 65-100 billion which is more than the total annual development aid given to those countries,” states WHO in its report, ‘Youth and Road Safety’ that was released on Monday.
FACT FILE
Two-wheelers are involved in the maximum number of road accidents
Pedestrians account for the highest number of deaths on the road, followed by two-wheeler and pillion riders
12 per cent of road accidents result in grievous injuries, 10 per cent result in death
Pedestrians account for about 45 per cent deaths on the road and two- wheeler drivers and pillion riders account for 35 per cent road accident deaths.
RTC buses rank first among ‘killer vehicles’. 106 accidents per 1000 RTC buses is the ‘accident rate’
Most recorded traffic violation: Wrong side entry, jumping signals and overtaking from the left, line crossing, unauthorised parking and prohibited U-turns More men die in accidents than women do
Source: TOI(Hyderabad epaper)
March 21st, 2007
Hyderabad: An Intermediate second year student, who was returning home after taking his examination, died in a road accident in Uppal on Tuesday. Three of his friends sustained injuries in the incident.
Mohd Ijaz Hussain, 19, an Intermediate second year student appeared for his examination at Mahboobia college in Malakpet on Tuesday. Hussain was a student of Government Junior College, SP Road, Secunderabad and resident of Bhimreddy colony in Boduppal.
After writing the examination, Hussain, along with three other friends, was returning home in the car belonging to Rizwan, who was driving the car. As the vehicle reached Peerzadaguda crossroads, the front tyre of the car went flat. Rizwan lost control over the vehicle and rammed it into an electric pole, Uppal police inspector Muthyam Reddy said.
Hussain, who was sitting in the front seat, suffered severe injuries and died on the spot. Rizwan along with two other occupants in the car, Balram and Sunith, all residents of Bhimreddy colony, suffered injuries and were shifted to hospital for treatment.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad-epaper)
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