HYDERABAD, Nov 3: After Karachi, the trend of installing metal barriers on street corners has made its way to Hyderabad, where the people are becoming increasingly wary of street crime.

The streets of many areas of the city, which include Hyderabad city, Latifabad and Qasimabad, are now equipped with these metal barriers to protect the people from street thugs.

The people who have had barriers installed on their streets say that the move has helped check crime rate to a great extent.

However in some areas, especially Hirabad, the commuters complain about the nuisance created by these barriers.

Hirabad is a commercial area situated next to Hyderabad’s civil hospital. It has pharmacies, laboratories, consulting clinics and hospitals with thousands of people visiting the area every day. Around 26 streets in the area have been sealed with 22 barriers with some streets having them at both ends.

Arshad, a chicken meat dealer, said that after being fed up of street crime, the residents and shopkeepers of the City Gate area in Hirabad pitched in Rs1,000 each and had a barrier put in four to five months ago. “Now I have trouble going to work since I have to use another street to reach my kiosk,” he complained. “Even with the protective barriers in place I was robbed of my cellphone two days ago when I was going home at night.”

Another daily commuter, Afzal Khan, who works in a private hospital in Latifabad and has to bring blood samples to a private laboratory in Hirabad, also considered the barriers a nuisance.

He said that he has to make his way through a traffic jam every day because of them.

However a resident of Hirabad, Samuel Charles, seems to be sleeping more peacefully since the residents of his apartment building installed barriers on one side of their street which is near the entrance of their building.