On any week day, the road leading from Rama Talkies to Asilmetta junction and from the Sampath Vinayak temple to the APSRTC Complex is a complete chaos during peak hours such as 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The road is clogged with over at least 1,000 autorickshaws, RTC and college buses, private vehicles and students. It is so chaotic at times that the traffic jam extends over a km on either side.
And this despite the traffic police department deploying at least two sub-inspectors and eight constables during the peak hours.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) K. Mahendra Patrudu told The Hindu: “There is no problem with the width of the road, as it is 80-foot wide with 8 foot pavements on either side, or with the road engineering. The problem is with the location of so many colleges and schools in the area.”
In a radius of about 1.5 km in the CBM Compound and Asilmetta, there are about 15 major corporate junior colleges and schools.
“If you take 2,000 as the minimum strength in each of them, then the student population moving on the road during morning and evening peak hours is close to 30,000. Along with the student population come autos that ferry them, school buses and regular transport. And adding to it is the rush of devotees at the Sampath Vinayak temple,” said Mr. Patrudu.
According to ACP (Traffic) Kinjarapu Prabhakar, the main problem is the existence of schools and colleges in that area, which is already a thickly populated residential area and a bustling commercial hub. And 80 % of the shopping complexes do not have user-friendly cellar parking and this adds to the woes.
But, according to sources in the police, there are a few old schools that have been existing for the last four decades. What needs to be done is to shift the new colleges and schools that have mushroomed in the last few years.
But the question is who would ‘bell the cat’. As per norms, the GVMC is not supposed to give permission for schools and colleges in residential and commercial areas that operate from apartment-like structures. But most corporate colleges belong to influential persons and none has the courage to take up the issue officially and legally, said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
‘Stagger timings’
According to senior police officers in the traffic wing, the immediate solution would be to stagger the timing of the schools and colleges so that the rush of students can be managed and the second is to shift the college and schools to city outskirts. According to Mr. Prabhakar, the police have been facing a Herculean task during intermediate examinations as some of the colleges in the areas have been earmarked as examination centres.
“The authorities concerned should abstain from choosing the colleges in the area as centres and rather prefer Andhra University or engineering college campus, where there is abundant parking space,” said Mr. Prabhakar.
