A project mooted by traffic police to ease congestion on the busy Secunderabad railway station road has been put on hold by the GHMC owing to lack of open space to house hawkers.
Police developed the project a few months ago after studying the problems faced by road users on the stretch starting from Rathifile bus station near Secunderabad Railway Reservation Complex to Alpha hotel.
Thanks to the scattered bus bays coupled with encroachment of pavements by hawkers and shopkeepers, this road witnesses ceaseless turmoil.
A decision was also taken to constitute a team comprising officials from the Police Department and GHMC to conduct a special drive for removing hawkers from pathways to ensure smooth traffic flow.
“Municipal authorities have to finalise the date on clearing hawkers. We are ready to put up barricades to make pedestrians walk on pavements,” a traffic police official said.
Two years ago, traffic police officials tackled the situation strategically and removed hawkers from the station road even after facing stiff resistance from politicians.
Police first prevented pedestrians from walking on the main road by placing 300 barricades from Rathifile bus station to Alpha hotel.
Later, they removed hawkers from footpaths on either side of the road as GHMC has earlier declared the area as red zone where hawkers were banned totally.
Police also developed a separate parking space at the railway entrance in Bhoiguda for the convenience of autorickshaw drivers.
This reduced chaos in front of the station. However, presently, things once again started getting chaotic on this stretch.
ACP (Traffic) P.V. Radhakrishna said plans have been chalked out to hold a meeting with senior municipal officials to take up the project at the earliest.
Senior officials said the proposed integrated bus terminal at the old Gandhi Hospital would be a solution to the traffic woes on the station road.
