Traffic jams have become very common in the city with the increasing number of vehicles, narrow roads and ongoing civic works such as construction of medians, new roads and rail-under-bridges.
Vehicles are regularly seen crawling at the railway kaman at Kanteswar, Khaleelwadi, Bodhan Road, Pulong Chowrasta, NTR Chowrasta, Weekly Market, railway station and on the bridge at Namdevwada, specially during peak hours. The worst-affected is Khaleelwadai with the maximum number of private hospitals, medical labs and pharmacies.
Traffic jams are witnessed regularly at the railway kaman due to the ‘never-ending’ construction work on the rail-under-bridge, which got delayed even after regular persuasion of the District Collector, local MLA and other authorities.
As a result, police have imposed traffic curbs near the Zilla Parishad police guest house towards Armoor and kaman. Though the Bhagath Singh Chowrasta on Bodhan Road to Rajasthan Bhavan through Devi Road was made one way, it did not yield the expected results, as vehicles from lanes and bylanes come onto this road adding more traffic.
Parking of vehicles in no-parking zone adds to the congestion, with many new malls, hotels and banks on Hyderabad road, Bodhan road and Varni road, not having sufficient parking space.
There seems to be no solution to this problem at least in the near future with the constant expansion of the city, construction work and the rising floating population. The location of the RTC bus stand and railway station in the middle of the city, and a flower market right in front of the railway station are other reasons.
According to Deputy Transport Commissioner Ch. Shivalingaiah, there are approximately 3.70 lakh vehicles in the district out of which, 20,000 are goods carriers. Over 23,000 autos, 40,000 cars and one lakh two-wheelers ply on roads everyday in the city inhabited by more than 4 lakh people. The Traffic Police wing is understaffed and have a tough time managing the crowd daily, he said.
