EVERYBODY'S CONCERN: Guntur Mayor Kanna Nagaraju, Commisioner D. Rama Rao and DSP M. Ravindranath Babu watching a power-point presentation on traffic management on Wednesday. Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

GUNTUR: Average speed of traffic on Guntur city roads is an abysmal 20 km per hour and double that on peripheral ones, which speaks volumes about the condition of roads and implementation of traffic rules.

Craphts Consultants (India) Private Limited conducted two-month comprehensive traffic study for the Guntur Municipal Corporation as part of traffic management programme to be implemented under the A.P. Urban Services Project. Presenting the interim report to officials on Wednesday, Craphts coordinator Chandra Kumar said there were six high-density roads and three traffic junctions that needed immediate modification for improving traffic flow conditions.

A majority of corporators, NGO representatives and others suggested laying of an Outer Ring Road from Perecherla Junction to Autonagar Approach Road for reducing traffic congestion in the old town and busy areas like Gandhi Park, Jinnah Tower, and underpass at Three Bridges.

Bound by the railway track on two sides and congested approach roads to National Highway No.5 due to ongoing construction of road overbridges, any amount of road widening will not help ease traffic congestion, Deputy Mayor Tadisetty Murali Mohan opined.

Feasible alternative

"The only cheap and feasible alternative is to develop a link road from Amaravathi Road to Autonagar to reach NH. 5 so that people from Guntur-II constituency areas do not enter the old city," he added.

Deputy Superintendent of Police M. Ravindranath Babu said speeding up the construction of two road overbridges at Manipuram and Kankaragunta would ease traffic congestion to a large extent. "The data gathered by Craphts Consultants will not hold good in another one year, hence all planning should be done depending on that," he observed.

The Municipal Commissioner, summing up the entire presentation, said that all inputs by people would be incorporated by the consultants and final comprehensive project report submitted within two months. Nine items were identified as key areas that need attention.

Some of them were developing Outer Ring Road, widening some roads, completing RoBs, constructing footpaths, removing hawkers to identified zones at the earliest, and improving parking lots. "Compliance by people was key to entire traffic management and police had to take a challenge," observed Mayor Kanna Nagaraju.

The main lacuna was found to be congestion of roads by autorickshaws and hawkers.

All auto registrations had been stopped temporarily in Vijayawada, which must be done in Guntur which has as many as 3,500 autos.

Railway official clarifies

Additional DRM P.N. Rai clarified that Railway land being asked by the GMC for widening Nehru Nagar might not be alienated as it had harped on doubling the line between Krishna Canal and Guntur, while therewas a proposal for doubling the Guntur-Tenali line also.

Commissioner Rama Rao, however, requested the Railways to give 5-feet strip of land along the track so that Nehru Nagar road could be widened.

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