Traffic chaos around the historic Charminar will soon be a thing of the past. Thanks to the plans of the traffic police to restrict the movement of autorickshaws around the monument apart from streamlining push carts, motorists can expect a smooth drive.
Scores of autorickshaws are parked in front of the Charminar Unani Hospital gate, Farasha Hotel and Panch Mohalla causing hurdles in the free flow of traffic. The problem intensifies during the evenings when their numbers increase as more people commute to different parts of the city.
To avoid regular traffic jams and related issues, the traffic police have prepared a proposal to restrict the entry of autorickshaws between Panch Mohalla Kaman- Charminar-Gulzar Houz stretch. Restrictions on the movement of autorickshaws are already in force on Sardar Mahal Road and Lad Bazaar stretch. A notification to this effect is expected soon.
“Once the orders are issued, autorickshaws will not be allowed around Charminar. The drivers will have to take the inner ring road of Charminar Pedestriation Project,” Charminar Traffic Inspector N. Lingaiah said.
The traffic police say that they regularly levy penalties on autorickshaws for parking their vehicles on the thoroughfare to dissuade drivers, but it has not helped to solve the problem. However, motorists have time and again complained about the police being lenient towards them.
The traffic police have already started chain-linking the push carts of fruits vendors who conduct business between the Charminar monument and Mecca masjid road stretch.
“After we introduced it, the push carts vendors stopped encroaching the main thoroughfare. In the past, our teams had to constantly move on the stretch to stop them from encroaching the main thoroughfare,” a traffic police official from Charminar police station said.
About 100 fruit vendors have been doing business on the stretch in different shifts here for last few decades and the proposal to shift them has always drawn resistance from political parties and trade unions.
