The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Three cheers! roads are revving

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 09, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Three cheers! roads are revving

K. Srinivas Reddy

Traffic police deserve a pat on their back for streamlining vehicular movement. A case in point: the average speed goes up to 16.2 kmph

ON SPEEDY TRAIL: With the police tackling bottlenecks like haphazard parking and decrease in carriageway, there has been a considerable reduction in travel time on the KBR Park -St. Ann's stretch. - PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: It's victory that may not earn a pat on the back.

But the result of an unrelenting effort by the traffic police was that vehicles are moving faster on some city road stretches. The consequent reduction in travel time may not be noticeable for the road user, but the noteworthy achievement is that the speed enhancement has been achieved through better management of traffic movement.

The increase in speed was registered on three most congested road stretches: Mojamjahi Market to Ameerpet, KBR Park to St. Anns and Osmania University to Barkatpura. The average speed that stood at 13.8 kmph some three months ago is now at 16.2 kmph, an analysis by the traffic police has indicated.

Scientific approach

The speed increase on these stretches has certainly cheered up traffic policemen who have realised that a scientific approach will always provide a workable solution.

On these three road stretches, the police tackled the bottlenecks like haphazard parking, reduction of carriageway due to encroachments, improperly synchronised signals and ill-designed junctions.

The MJ Market-Ameerpet stretch still has a major problem at Lakdikapul.

The two-and-a-half lane bridge is unable to cope with the traffic flow from Assembly side (five-lane road), Dwaraka hotel (three-lane) and Nirankari Bhavan (three-lane). The 30-feet bridge (each lane is roughly 12 ft) is unable to take the load and hence the congestion at that point.

But to some extent, the choking at the bridge could be tackled after the police barred traffic from Red Hills and Niloufer Hospital lanes from cutting across the flow from Lakdikapul towards Mahavir Hospital or towards BJR College side.

"This flow constitutes 3 per cent of the total traffic at the Ayodhya junction. This meagre flow can not hold up 97 per cent of vehicles and now they will have to take a compulsory left turn and go towards Mahavir Hospital," explains A.K. Khan, Additional Commissioner, Traffic.

Three-lane bridge

However, the real solution to traffic congestion at this junction is in constructing another bridge alongside of Lakdikapul. Mr. Khan says that a three-lane bridge is the need of the hour. The bridge is expected to cost about Rs.2 crores.

But, the biggest hurdle is clearance from the Government in allotting the land belonging to the Police Department on the compound of Intelligence Department building.

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