Mall ‘encroaches’ upon Gayatri Nagar Road

A stretch of the road is reportedly being used by the mall as a parking space

The parking space reportedly created by a shopping mall on Gayatri Nagar Road, in Vijayawada on Wednesday.

A shopping mall located on Gayatri Nagar Road near Benz Circle has reportedly encroached upon part of the road to create a parking space for its visitors, thus obstructing the flow of traffic.

Motorists commuting on the stretch were in for a rude shock on Wednesday.

The encroachment is putting motorists in harm’s way as the width of the road has been reduced to half for a 50-metre stretch, creating a traffic bottleneck. Also, pedestrians have no space to walk and are forced to risk walking on the narrow stretch of the road braving heavy traffic.

“While heading towards Pinnamaneni Polyclinic Road, the width of the road outside the mall on Gayatri Nagar Road has shrunk by half due to encroachment, forcing motorists to ride in the wrong lane which is quite dangerous,” said G. Aravind, a local.

The shopping mall is learnt to have illegally carved out the parking space on the road after the one within its premises proved to be insufficient to accommodate visitors’ vehicles.

The Gayatri Nagar Road, which leads to several shopping malls and eateries, has been laid recently by the civic body.