Traffic congestion: Hyderabad district administration told to remove encroachments

District administration to prepare 15-day action plan

HYDERABAD: With the problem of traffic congestion aggravating everyday, Hyderabad’s traffic management board on Monday decided a set of measures including removal of encroachments and illegal public transport stands to ease flow of the vehicles. Hyderabad

Commissioner Muhammad Abbass Baloch, who chaired the meeting, asked the district administration to prepare a 15-day action plan to end encroachment from roads in the city.

The commissioner tasked the district administration and the police to clear roads adjoining Hyderabad’s biggest public transport hub, Badin stop, and to remove all other illegal public transport stops.

“No pressure or influence would be accepted,” he warned, referring to the influence of the transporters. Baloch allowed the board to install the traffic signals wherever they are required in Hyderabad. The district has dozens of intersections but only one traffic signal, among the few installed in the city, functions at the Gul Centre area.

The commissioner also directed the district administration and the police to enforce the 11pm closure time for the wedding halls and to book the owners of those halls under section 144 if they defy the order. “The district administration and the police should work jointly to address the traffic problems,” he said while also requesting the business community to cooperate with the government in clearing the encroachments.

The Hyderabad DIG Naeem Ahmed Shaikh said the district required a short term and a long term traffic management plan in view of the complication which have grown due to years of lax regulation.

“Everyone among us should have the sense of their responsibilities and there should be no blame game.”

He asked Hyderabad SSP Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh to assist the district administration in removal of encroachments and to personally oversee implementation of the traffic laws. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2018.