Hyderabad: A group of urban planners, transport professionals and citizens has launched a petition urging the Telangana govt to rethink its dependence on flyovers and road-widening projects and instead adopt measures aimed at improving public transport and reducing congestion. They claim several measures to ease city’s traffic woes can be implemented within six months.“Every piece of infrastructure that you put in is going to limit prospects of improving public transport,” said transport policy specialist Prashant Bachu. He argued that flyovers could make it more difficult and expensive to introduce public transport systems in the future.The group’s petition, Let’s Un-Choke Hyderabad, calls for a pause on new flyovers and road-widening projects, including those under H-CITI and SRDP, until their impact is reviewed. Among the measures proposed are rolling back bus and Metro fares to pre-2022 levels, restoring MMTS services to 2019 levels, introducing bus-priority lanes and improving pedestrian crossings near bus stops.Natasha Ranarathnam (55), a development consultant from Somajiguda and one of the campaign’s founding members, said: “The campaign caught my attention because I was associated with Warrior Moms, which advocated for clean air, and vehicle emissions are a major contributor to air pollution.”“After two panel discussions at Goethe-Zentrum and LaMakaan, we decided to bring people together and prepare a representation with three principles in mind: it should be easy to implement, low-cost and have an immediate impact,” she added.The petition also proposes walking or cycling at least one day a week, restricting motorised traffic in select commercial areas to improve pedestrian access, and requiring govt officials and political leaders to use public transport. Other suggestions include pooled feeder buses connecting Metro and MMTS stations with major employment hubs such as HITEC City, Madhapur and Raidurg, with IT companies jointly funding 250-300 buses.“Traffic has become so painful that I avoid going out altogether. A 4-km commute from Maredpally to Begumpet used to take me 45 minutes when I was working from the office. This was one of the reasons I chose to work from home,” said Ambica Srimal (48), a resident of Banjara Hills.“When I began researching traffic issues around the world while I was part of the Save KBR project, I realised that building more flyovers was not necessarily the solution,” she added.According to the group, the petition had received a little over 270 sign-ups as of Oct 9, a day after its release. Organisers plan to print the petition and submit it to the Telangana Governor, the chief minister and senior officials from the municipal administration and other departments, seeking discussions on implementing the proposed measures.
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