Policy, not just flyovers, key to easing Hyd traffic: Experts | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: The city’s traffic crisis cannot be solved by building more flyovers or adding more buses alone. It needs policy reforms, better public transport, improved pedestrian infrastructure and a shift in commuter behaviour to become more liveable, experts said during a panel discussion on sustainable mobility organised by Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad on Thursday.Special chief secretary for municipal administration and urban development Jayesh Ranjan outlined the state govt’s plan to identifing making Hyderabad a more liveable city as a key objective and was implementing nearly 100 interventions to improve mobility and public spaces.Transport policy specialist Prashanth Bachu said merely expanding the bus fleet without redesigning roads and policies would worsen congestion. Drawing from global examples, he said cities that tackled traffic first discouraged private vehicle use through policy measures, including higher charges, and invested the revenue in public transport. Such interventions, he said, led to behavioural changes such as carpooling and greater reliance on public transport. “Transport is not an infrastructure problem alone; it is also a behavioural problem,” he said.Responding to the discussion, GHMC commissioner RV Karnan said there was no immediate solution to congestion and said the city must incentivise public transport. He said Hyderabad had one of the country’s cheapest MMTS networks but only around 60,000 commuters used it daily, and added that improving first- and last-mile connectivity would be critical in increasing ridership.Ranjan outlined the govt roadmap, including engineering improvements at 21 major traffic bottlenecks, model corridors with cycle tracks and better footpaths, removal of encroachments while rehabilitating street vendors, improved access to metro and MMTS stations, a common ticketing system for public transport, GIS-based traffic management in collaboration with Google, and greater coordination among agencies through Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.The discussion also covered the social and environmental costs of urban development. UoH assistant professor Anjali Lal Gupta questioned whether infrastructure decisions adequately considered pedestrians, street vendors, biodiversity and future generations. She called for more democratic planning processes that included communities most affected by development.Moderator Natasha Ramarathnam said, “Traffic was no longer only a commuting issue but a public health concern, as congestion contributed to air pollution, heat and a declining quality of life.” The panel said infrastructure projects remained important, but Hyderabad’s long-term mobility challenge depended on policy changes, citizen participation and behavioural shifts that encouraged people to choose public transport over private vehicles.
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