It is a known fact that India is an emerging country. The kind of development in the form of new swanky offices, high rises, malls and pubs that takes places in my city of Hyderabad certainly means one thing : Be prepared for more. It also means that there is similar development in several other new cities across India. But, more of what, you may ask? ‘More’ includes fresh influx of people from the rural area to the cities in search of means of livelihood; more pressure on existing resources such as electricity, water and living spaces; more number of vehicles on the road and more people on buses and trains. The question to be asked: Are we prepared for the future? The answer is blatantly obvious – absolutely not! The posts that will follow in the coming weeks shall concentrate on different aspects and deficiences of the new urban India, and will propose solutions to some of these problems.

Let’s look at Hyderabad: a city with over 90 lakh people (Hyderabad is ‘Greater’ now) adds thousands of immigrants to its ever-growing population, everyday.  Hyderabad has the country’s highest traffic density per kilometre  – standing at 2337 per km (in 2007), with road availability of just 6% (again, 2007).  Roads that were once a pleasure to drive on, like the Inner-ring road connecting Secunderabad to Tarnaka has now become a nightmare, especiialy after the government planned to take up road widening on this stretch.  Several bottlenecks on my daily commute to Hitech City from Tarnaka include : a badly timed traffic signal at Parade grounds,  a narrow stretch at Shopper’s stop, another narrowing of the road at the BP gas pump, ever-increasing traffic on the Begumpet bridge, traffic curbs and barricades near Somajiguda to let our Hon’able Chief Minister reach his destination every morning and evening, a narrow road at Chutney’s, another narrow stretch on Jubilee Hills which is due to a graveyard if I’m not mistaken. I have more on my daily ride – the best of the worst being three religious obstacles at the Malkajgiri junction in the form of the famous Church, opposite to which is a tiny church, and bang in the middle of the road, under a tree lie a temple – all in an unbelievable proximity to each other. The right turn that I take towards Rail Nilayam from under the bridge is another awesome example. A new entrant to the pain in the rider’s ass list of irritable traffic spots include the split in the divider bang opposite Axis Bank in Tarnaka just a few yards ahead of the flyover.

I’m sure that you have come across similar experiences either in Hyderabad or in your own large city. What does/can one do in a situation like this? I, being a huge believer of reducing pollution and of saving petroleum for the future would jump at the idea of travelling by public transport. If only I could find a proper mode of transport. Let me shed some light. The previous govt. did a huge favor to the citizens of Hyderabad by starting what we call a Multi-Modal Transport System. What was initially envisaged to be a huge public-mode-of-transport, including a train cum bus system turned out to be a big disaster. That was until the govt. started actively advertising about its services, at a time when new offices in Hitech city were cropping up every other day. These MMTS trains now run jam packed during peak office hours partly due to the large no. of employees working in the Software industry.  The other part of the reason is the sheer lack of frequency of these trains, due to the fact that these trains do not run on dedicated tracks, instead further clog the already clogged rail network of South Central Railway. This also means that the routes do not serve a major chunk of Hyderabad citizens. Add to this the poor connectivity of buses and the sheer location of these MMTS railway stations.

I do not think I need to comment on the condition of travel in an RTC bus over 20 km.

Keeping these limitations in mind, the Congress govt. envisaged a new metro rail network that would run over major existing roads connecting the dots and covering gaps left open by MMTS and RTC.  The tenders to this project created tonnes of footage of news and more news due to the fact that Maytas Infra, a Hyd. based construction company bagged the project. People applauded this move and waited eagerly. And waited, as we saw Satyam get into a scam, taking down Maytas with it. We continue to wait with what all us Indians (are forced to) have : Hope. The last heard news about it was a couple of days ago when the Chief Minister asked Maytas to reply in a week’s time about its ability to fund and take up the project. Originally projected to be completed in 2013, we hope atleast our kids get to enjoy the fruits of this ‘dream’, while we continue to drag our shoes along the roads for what seems like an eternity.

Next post : Intercity travel.