As two-wheelers, four-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and city buses turn up in full strength to head to common destinations such as schools, colleges and workplaces, the morning rush hour literally throws traffic out of gear at most junctions across the city.
However, at Kanithi Road, Chaitanya Nagar in Gajuwaka, the hustle and bustle begins a little early as the traffic police department and the GVMC have come together to ease the traffic bottlenecks by introducing staggered timings of schools and colleges.
With more than 10,000 students heading to private and corporate educational institutions at the same time located in the area, the reshuffled timetable will reduce the traffic congestion to a considerable extent.
After a two-month intensive survey, the initiative has been rolled out where over a dozen educational institutions will now be considering the revised timings. “With a variation of 10-15 minutes gap, the timings of some of the educational institutions have been rescheduled. As most junctions are chock-a-block with bottlenecks from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and again from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., the staggered timings will certainly ease the traffic flow in the area,” says R. Somannarayana, Zone-V Commissioner.
Some of the schools that begin the academic work at 8:30 a.m. will now work from 8:15 a.m. Similarly, colleges that dot the neighbourhood will start a little late. “As a number of children are now being brought to educational institutions in four-wheelers, two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws, efforts are being made to bring respite to traffic woes during rush hour. After a couple of weeks, survey will again be carried out to check the result,” says P. Ramana, Circle Inspector, Gajuwaka. He said depending on the outcome, similar initiative would be proposed in other areas as well.
Principal of Aditya Degree College P. Pradeep Kumar says the new timetable has already been communicated to students and parents and the college management will be following the revised schedule from Saturday.
While most schools and colleges agreed to revise the timing with immediate effect after attending the meeting organised jointly by the traffic police department and the GVMC, the new timings will come into play for a few other institutions from August 16.
