Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

No smooth flow of traffic at Benz Circle

Staff Reporter

ATTHECROSSROADS

WHICH WAY OUT: As a point of convergence for NH-5 and NH-9, Benz Circle in Vijayawada attracts heavy traffic round the clock. - Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

VIJAYAWADA: If there is any junction in the city that seems to attract heavy traffic almost round the clock, it is Benz Circle.

As a point of convergence for NH-5 running from Chennai to Kolkata and NH-9 leading to Machilipatnam, it has all kinds of vehicles crisscrossing each other continuously, requiring deployment of two to three traffic police to ensure smooth traffic flow.

But unlike many other junctions in the city, Benz Circle has no significant engineering defects that need to be addressed.

The problem, if any, is on account of the difference in the widths of carriageways of NH-5 and NH-9, which is contributing to uneven flow of traffic moving on the Mahatma Gandhi Road and on NH-5 when they converge at the junction.

While traffic moving on either side of MG Road has a narrow carriageway to use, especially when they approach the junction, vehicles moving on either side of NH-5 have a wider carriageway to zoom past without any problem. The MG Road traffic often slows down the NH-5 traffic.

Strangely, the long service roads that start at Ramavarappadu on NH-5 meet a dead end at this junction, as they are closed at the corners. If any vehicle user is unaware of this and reaches the end of the service road, he has to go back and join the main carriageway.

Narrow carriageway

The narrow carriageway of MG Road has a nullifying affect on the usefulness of the splayed stretches of the road, which are meant for the traffic that wants to take a free left. For example, vehicles coming from Patamata on NH-9 and wanting to go towards Skew Bridge on NH-5 are forced to wait for long when vehicles moving straight towards MG Road line up for signal.

The tendency of vehicle users to jump signals and join the traffic flow by coming from wrong side also adds to the chaos.

This is evident more clearly in case of two-wheeler users who get a filling at either of the two oil filling stations located on two corners of the junction.

For example, two-wheeler users who get a filling at the bunk on the corner of NH-5 and M.G. Road near Varun Motors and want to move towards Patamata do so only after cutting into the traffic moving on MG Road from Patamata towards Labbipet.

`Flyover needed'

Poorna, who works for an eatery on one of the corners of the junction, says: "It is easy to do so, as I otherwise have to travel a long distance to take a U-turn."

Nandakumar, a railway employee, feels that a solution to the traffic problem at Benz Circle can be found only by constructing a flyover on NH-5.

National Highways Authority of India officials say that the project, which has been on cards for long, will be executed as part of the proposed bypass connecting NH-5 and NH-9 by laying a bridge across the Krishna from Surayapalem to Tadepalli.

It is likely to take at least a couple of years, they say.

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