It’s a test of patience for motorists

Lack of traffic management plan compounds traffic woes in Guntur. A thriving commercial hub, the town is centrally located. There are seven roads that provide access to the city from all directions.

June 26, 2014 11:36 pm | Updated 11:36 pm IST - GUNTUR:

Lack of driving lanes have worsened traffic woes on the main road opposite the NTR Bus Station Complex in Guntur.  - PHOTO: T. Vijaya Kumar

Lack of driving lanes have worsened traffic woes on the main road opposite the NTR Bus Station Complex in Guntur. - PHOTO: T. Vijaya Kumar

Driving into the town across the bridge at Manipuram has become a test of patience for the motorists as the main road leading to NTR Bus Station Complex is often crammed by a maze of city buses, cars and auto rickshaws, thanks to the encroachments.

The MG Road leads to the crowded market centre and then to the Rajiv Gandhi Statue Centre, where the road to the left leads to offices of district Collector, S.P and district courts. Commuters heading towards the busy Brodipet and Arundelpet, face a harrowing time as they have to cross a narrow RoB where traffic snarl has become the order of the day.

For a town billed to be developed as a twin city, along with Vijayawada, absence of a proper traffic management plan has been compounding the woes of commuters and is draining the resources of both the police and Guntur Muncipal Corporation. The GMC aided by police carry out drives regularly to remove encroachments, which crop up again in no time.

“We have already started removing the encroachments on the road in front of the Bus Station Complex. We hope to clear them by June end,’’ says assistant civic planner G. Ravinder.

A thriving commercial hub, the town is centrally located. There are seven roads that provide access to the city from all directions. But the town suffers from a severe geographical disadvantage as numerous railway level crossings and an underpass on the eastern side of the railway station have become the bottleneck for the smooth flow of traffic. With a skeletal public transport system, the city is largely dependent on personal vehicles and hired auto-rickshaws.

Survey

A Comprehensive Traffic Survey conducted by Craphts Consultants in 2006 provides a blueprint for a systematic traffic management. It suggested a short-term improvement plan to be implemented from 2006 to 2011, medium-term plan from 2011 to 2016 and long-term improvement plan from 2016 to 2031. The survey also called for the GMC and police to prepare a Traffic Management Plan (TMP) and rolling out a Bus-based Mass Rapid Transport System (BRTS) to meet the future needs of the city.

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