Traffic slowdowns and jams continued to trouble motorists traversing through the Begumpet road on Monday with the Metro Rail authorities speeding up works on the stretch.
Bumper to bumper traffic was witnessed on the thoroughfares until late evenings much to the chagrin of road users. “It took an hour for me to cross the Begumpet - Greenlands junction. Normally I complete the distance in just ten minutes,” was the common complaint of the motorists.
The situation was worse during the morning peak hours with office-goers, the IT crowd and those coming to their offices getting struck in the traffic. Motorists complained that it took more than two hours for them to negotiate through the stretch.
When contacted, Begumpet Traffic Inspector S. Sudharshan said that a portion of the road in front of Lifestyle building was barricaded and a pillar is being put up as part of Metro Rail works. “We are taking all measures to ensure free flow of traffic but as the road width isconsiderably reduced, traffic slowdowns are bound to happen,” the official said, adding that people have been advised to take alternative routes.
The bottleneck for the motorist is the stretch at Begumpet Spanish mosque, near Prakashnagar. To facilitate free flow of traffic heading to Secunderabad from Begumpet, traffic officials are preventing entry of vehicles from Secunderabad onto the flyover. This traffic from SP Road is in turn being squeezed onto the narrow stretch beginning the mosque, causing massive traffic jams at the Begumpet flyover. “Moving through Begumpet normally takes 15 minutes. However the traffic diversion around airport area is hurting the two-way traffic. It can now take as long as an hour to crawl through Begumpet,” said a A.V. Madhav, a motorist.
