KTR Urges Centre To Open Closed Roads In Cantonment Area

Hyderabad, Aug.16 (Maxim News): Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao today urged the Centre to open the closed roads in Cantonment area in Secunderabad.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, KT Rama Rao has informed that defence authorities causing much convenience to people of the city.

KTR said frequent and mostly sudden and unannounced closure of these important roads such as AOC rods, Gough road on previous occasions has resulted in widespread resentment among the citizens . Taking cognizance of these genuine concerns of the citizens, the Ministry of Defence has issued a “Standard Protocol” to be followed by the Local Military Authorities in initiating the process for closing of roads in the accordance with the provisions of the Cantonment Act, 2006, duly factoring in the “emergent security needs” of the army.

The Local authorities of the Secunderabad Cantonment prima-Facie , without following the SOP, had shut down four important roads-Allahabad Gate, Gough Road, Wellington road and Ordinance road for ten days in July 2018 citing a surge in COVID-19 cases in the city.

Lakhs of commuters from localities like Yapral, Kowkur, Bollarum, Trimulgherry using the roads either to go to work places or residences have faced much hardship, he pointed out.

There are about 25 public roads in Secunderabad Cantonment Area, which are prone to such arbitrary closures for traffic. The concerns about closure of these roads at any time in future, he said all these roads were admittedly open to public since their inception, some of which are of more than 100 years of existence.

Most of these roads lie in a narrow strip of land which extends approximately 10 km in the north-south direction along the arterial Rajiv Rahadari Highway. Closure of these roads would cut-off north-eastern areas of the city from this artery, which is their main access to the rest of the city. Over 10 lakh citizens were affected on a daily basis.
Further, these roads were being used by farmers from villages in the eastern areas of Nagaram, Kapra, etc to access markets to dispose their produce such as Risala Bazar, Bolarum Bazar, Pioneer Bazar, Doveton Bazar, Lal Bazar, etc – all of which are located on the western side of the Cantonment, he informed the Defence Minister.

The minister appealed to Rajnath Singh to ensure that the roads in Secunderabad Cantonment area are reopened for public use without any delay. The minister expressed displeasure that due to arbitrary and random decisions of closing roads by the defense officials.
He also said that the lakhs of people are put to inconvenience by such vague decisions adding to the woes of road users. (Maxim News)