In an apparent enthusiasm Telangana’s IT Minister KT Rama Rao sought “out of the box” suggestion to improve Hyderabad’s roads but what he got was a dose of good old common sense.
On June 14, Rao, who is quite active on social media, tweeted:
Need some out of the box solutions for improving roads in Hyderabad. Conducting a workshop day after. Any suggestions/advise tweeple?
— KTR (@KTRTRS) June 14, 2016
Responses to Rao’s tweet were quite sincere. There was the occasional joke (a gif of Benedict Cumberbatch), but most of the responses appeared to be simple steps that people have been demanding for a long time, but never taken seriously.
Many people gave practical suggestions and pointed out systemic problems that directly affected driving such as the corruption in the RTO, lax system of issuing driving licenses, the transparency in the tender process and so on.
Here’s a sample of what people said:
1. People want construction work to be made online.
@MeninaElegante @KTRTRS Having an app or an online stacking system to report and resolve road issues will be really great.
— Arkadip sengupta (@iArkoSengupta) June 14, 2016
2. People also suggested Road adoption by local welfare association.
@KTRTRS @WeAreHyderabad I think road adoption by local Area welfare association is the best! Monitoring and reporting at grass root level.
— Deepeelicious (@MeninaElegante) June 14, 2016
3. Citizens want IT minister to involve big companies like L&T in laying roads.
@KTRTRS Involve biggies like L&T in laying roads in Main lines, they will feel & take better responsibility in maintenance (3)
— iShravan (@shravanonline) June 14, 2016
4. People also said that banking is must for any road, they also complained that no roads in Hyderabad is done with Banking.
@KTRTRS Banking is must for any road, No single road in Hyd is done with Banking. It makes water log during monsoons and bring traffic jams.
— Abhinandan Rao (@abhinandan99) June 14, 2016
5. People suggested KTR to recruit transport planners for improving roads.
@KTRTRS Recurit professionals in improving the roads. Someone like a transport Planner can actually be more helpful.
— Chetan Rao (@cbeeravelli) June 14, 2016
6. People want him to control four wheeler sales and no VIP blockage.
@KTRTRS Control Four Wheeler sales,Say No for VIP blockage,implement water sinking roads,stop constructing big malls on huge traffic roads
— :: (@VVgaru) June 14, 2016
7. KTR should deploy Singapore engineers as trainer, said Hyderabadi's.
— Santosh (@ImSantosh8392) June 14, 2016
8.People want to him to set up infrastructure to repair potholes.
— Srinivas Reddy K (@KSriniReddy) June 14, 2016