Hyderabad, April 15: THE upmarket function halls in Secunderabad that have for years now been using the roads as parking lots for their guests with impunity and least regard for the severe inconvenience being caused to the motorists and other road users, got a rude shock from the cops a couple of days ago. The city police served them with terse notices that they should either arrange alternative parking spaces for their guests or face shutdown.
What prompted officials to act with such haste and fury, after going soft on the halls for a long time, was apparently the April 8 gridlock at some junctions in Secunderabad that almost entirely stalled any movement in that locality.
Many marriages were performed in the city on that day considered very auspicious and these marriage halls, bursting at seams with rich and famous invitees, merrily allowed their swanky and often huge cars to be parked on the road occupying much of the space, if not all, outside their gates. And that day, obviously, turned out to be inauspicious for commuters, getting stranded as they were for hours together on these roads. The traffic police had a hell of a time clearing the snarls and getting the traffic juggernaut on a roll.
Candidly admitting the severe traffic problem being caused by the function halls, traffic police said they have started slapping notices on them.
“Notices have been served on 25 function halls in the last four days and 15 more will get them soon. We warned the owners of legal action, including shutdown of their halls, if alternative parking places are not provided,” Trimulgherry ACP PV Radha Krishna told Expresso.
Among the recipients of the notices are halls like Rajarajeshwari, Imperial, Millennium, Pearl, Classic and De Leo Royal mostly in the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB). They cause traffic snarls at Brooke Bond junction, Diamond Point, Tivoli Garden and other busy localities.
“Within each high-end function hall, there are two or more pandals where marriages are held simultaneously leading to heavy inflow of guests. A majority of them come in cars and the parking space inside the halls is grossly insufficient to accommodate them. As a result, they park their vehicles on the road,” Radha Krishna explained the problem.
“We have been videographing the traffic jams which will be used as proof against the irresponsible function halls,” police said.
–Agencies