Police begin week-long effort to regulate traffic near Railway Station

The city traffic police started regulating traffic on Railway Station Road and K.G. Street from Thursday, as part of their ‘Vaaram Oru Veedhi’ (one street one week) project to make roads usable for motorists and pedestrians. But the exercise yielded minimum results as there were quite a few issues that the police still had to work on.

Last week (Thursday to Wednesday), the police regulated traffic on Government Arts College Road (in East sub division) and Vysial Street (in West sub division). After the successful outcome of the implementation on those roads, the police started to implement the same in two others roads this week.

On Thursday, East sub division police started regulating Railway Station Road, wherein road users are hit by stray parking of buses, autorickshaws and taxis. This makes it an uphill task to cross the road which is unavoidable to reach the Collectorate and Police Commissioner’s office among other important places.

Situation worsens at the time of arrival or departure of important trains. On Thursday, teams of policemen deployed in more numbers avoided stray parking on the Collectorate to Lanka Corner direction. Buses that used to stop on the middle of the road before the railway station were directed to the extreme edge of the road closer to the bus shelters. Passengers were also asked to avoid boarding buses wherever they slow down due to slow moving traffic.

Autorickshaws and taxis were not allowed to wait at the entrance of the railway station. They were only allowed to drop their passengers and immediately leave the place. Double line parking of autorickshaws reducing motorable space was also avoided. These made the road free for vehicles, making the drive partly successful.

On the other hand, dozens of autorickshaws still occupied the footpath close to the railway station, forcing pedestrians to use the roads. Traders encroached upon a fair share of the footpaths on both sides of the road. Traffic police said that autorickshaws could not be shifted as there was no dedicated space for them in that vicinity, unlike bigger cities.

The West sub division police carried out the drive on the congested K.G. Street from Raja Street Junction to Vysial Street Junction. Lorries were cleared from the road and asked to load and unload vehicles between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. Only two-wheelers were allowed to be parked on one side of the road in the earmarked space.