Even after more than seven years of construction, it is not yet completed. Work stopped, resumed several times and goes on endlessly. The contractors have also changed. The net result is inconvenience to thousands of commuters daily.
Welcome to the never-ending saga of the road over bridge at Suchitra bus stop on Bowenpally-Medchal stretch. Bridges and flyovers, which were started after this one, had been completed and thrown open to public. Of late, the situation turned from bad to worse as the road on either side of the old bridge developed potholes further slowing down the flow of traffic. The closure of Military dairy farm road to relay some stretches adds to the traffic woes .
Volume of traffic
Unlike roads in central parts of the city, a large number of heavy vehicles - six to 12 wheelers - pass by this road it being national highway. Volumes of general traffic too went up tremendously in the past five years with numerous residential colonies coming up around the area.
The new ROB was planned to accommodate the increasing flow of traffic but the snail’s pace of construction is defeating the purpose. Craters on the approach roads to the existing bridge are causing chaos, especially in the peak hours.
The potholes on the approach road from Military dairy farm are so huge that some vehicles laden with huge machinery or goods get stuck now and then. As a ripple effect, queues of vehicles pile up till Bowenpally and Kompally sides. This is recurring as scores of heavy vehicles going from Mumbai to Vijayawada are taking Suchitra route with repair work undertaken on the dairy farm road.
The traffic police’ requests to fill potholes fell on deaf ears. “We are filling up the craters as and when we find them. There could be delay sometimes,” the NHAI project director I. Ganapati Reddy, says.
A peculiar situation is the improvement of Suchitra Junction, which does not even have traffic signal lights and road marking, cannot be undertaken unless the ROB is completed. “Manually regulating the traffic at such huge intersection is becoming tough task,” say traffic police.
