Why Hyderabad’s pedestrians shun subways despite safety benefits

Despite offering safe pedestrian crossings, subways have failed to find acceptance in Hyderabad due to poor maintenance, flooding, security concerns and design flaws. With older underpasses lying abandoned, city planners have largely dropped subway projects from urban planning.

Hyderabad: For some reasons, pedestrians in Hyderabadis have been averse to subterranean means of crossing a busy road junction. They will not mind struggling their way through speeding vehicles on the road or even climb stairs for a Foot over Bridge. But subways, it’s a clear no.

Though the subways in major metros across the world and even in Indian metros such as Chennai and Mumbai are favoured means for pedestrians, in the City of Pearls, they find no acceptance.

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With decades old subways lying obsolete and shut down after repeated efforts to popularize them, the infrastructure planners for a growing Hyderabad these days do not incorporate subway design in their planning.

A subway at ever-busy Koti junction was built in 1992 by the erstwhile MCH. Over a period of time with pedestrians not willing to use it and despite posting traffic wardens to guide pedestrians down the tunnel, the facility was abandoned. The facility now houses shops selling used text books.

A subway was also built at RTC X roads as early as 1980. Despite offering a safe passage under the busy intersection, it remained unused for long. The decades-old pedestrian subway was demolished during the construction of the Metro Rail project.

The failed subways of Hyderabad were seen as an example for Hyderabadi’s reluctance to use tunneled walkways and also bad design and improper maintenance. Among others, lack of required ventilation, improper illumination causing a claustrophobic feel, sanitation not taken care of and security aspects not addressed, were then seen as reasons for the failure.

A senior GHMC engineering and maintenance official told ‘Telangana Today’ that poor upkeep does make subways unsafe. “Subways are intended to help people cross roads safely, but the older underpasses were affected by seepage, flooding, inadequate lighting, poor ventilation and a lack of security, making them unpopular,” he said. There were also complains of these two subways getting inundated during rains.

Subways indeed are popular in other metro cities like Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru, the official said adding, “in Hyderabad, the sewerage network is decades old and is yet to revamped, resulting in seepage. In this situation, subway construction is not suitable at several junctions.”

Later in 2013, the GHMC did plan four subways at Afzalgunj, St. George’s Grammar School (Abids), Owaisi Hospital (Santoshnagar) and Mehdipatnam with an estimated total cost of Rs 3.94 crore. Though the GHMC standing committee also approved it, the proposal was quietly shelved later.