Hyderabadis lap up traffic-free Sunday evenings
A leisure walk with your beloved with the cool breeze stirring the senses is absolute romanticism. In the concrete jungle of Hyderabad, that romanticism was recreated with the popular hangout spot, Tank Bund, closed for vehicles on Sunday evenings, and leaving it to people to rekindle some good old days when life was full of pleasures moving at snail’s pace.
It was kind of reclaiming the roads to take a leisure stroll on a cool evening, children skating and a few riding bicycles and the young finding space to revitalise romantic relationships. The cloudy sky played the perfect host and the breeze flowing from the lake added to the lovely set-up for hundreds of people who thronged the lake road.
This was the first Sunday after the government decided to close down the Tank Bund road for vehicles from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and the response was pretty good. The decision came after MA&UD Minister K.T. Rama Rao mooted the idea after a citizen requested him. Hundreds of citizens took to Twitter posting pictures and videos of vehicle-free Tank Bund, a rare sight for Hyderabadis.
The road that connects Hyderabad and Secunderabad is never devoid of vehicles.
It reminded of the government’s similar initiative ‘Raahgiri’ launched in 2015 in the IT corridor. It became an instant hit with thousands of people reclaiming the street and pedestrians playing cricket, football, bicycling, rope walking and some of them showing off their Zumba moves.
Citizens thanked the Minister for the vehicle-free lake road initiative so that the local populace could enjoy their evenings without vrooming sounds of vehicles. Shiva Prasad @shivainn tweeted saying ‘Newly Transformed TankBund. Good decision’. Nalin Kumar Asawa @NalinAsawa had an advice saying ‘to attract more people some events can be organised apart from camel ride, horse ride and boating.’
Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration, Arvind Kumar tweeted thanking KTR for the idea and adding that Tank Bund was recently renovated and the sheer enjoyment and relaxed ways of families were worth all the effort. ‘It’s nice to have some space & time on Tank Bund dedicated to evening walkers, families and especially kids. From today Sunday evenings in #Hyderabad are more enjoyable and pleasant.’
But, there were a few like G.V. Vamsi Krishnan who criticised the police officers saying it led to huge traffic jams. ‘It is a stupid decision and hope they will feel the pain of traffic jam once they retire.’
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