With the civic authorities facing stumbling blocks in the expansion of Metro Rail carriageways, many feared that they would have to face protracted traffic jams at busy junctions.
But some deft, out-of-box thinking by the Cyberabad police has ensured that the heavy traffic at key junctions in Cyberabad area is on the move.
The traffic police have taken up drastic measures like partially closing down major junctions, opening alternative routes and imposing ‘no-right-turn’ at many junctions.
“We have observed that motorists get irritated when they are forced to stop even if it is at traffic signals, hence we are trying to ensure that wheels of the vehicles are kept rolling,” DCP (Traffic) Avinash Mohanty said.
Junction-wise surveys have been conducted by the traffic police in Cyberabad area to identify the vehicular flow patterns and alternative routes available. Each junction had to be tackled in its own peculiar way as none of the junctions in the city are similar, Mr. Mohanty observed.
“We have closed junctions like Uppal and JNTU partially, and motorists will have to travel extra distance to take a right turn at many places. Wherever possible, we have also opened alternative routes and motorists are taking them automatically to avoid the rush on main thoroughfares,” he explained, adding that motorists were willing to cover extra distance as long as their vehicle was on move.
“I go through JNTU junction everyday and I find that crossing it takes less time now as compared to earlier,” Mr. Mohanty said. Accepting that these were stop-gap arrangements, he said steps would be taken to fine tune these arrangements.
“Currently we are tinkering with the available resources and since they are proving efficient in management, we are planning to approach the civic authorities to create permanent engineering changes even after the completion of Metro construction,” he added.
