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Run up to flyovers?

The study is being made to look into the feasibility of constructing flyovers

PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

ENGROSSED The boys counting the passing vehicles

What's it like seeing a dozen youth sitting on chairs in one corner of a busy road? Sounds crazy? But it's true. Take a look around at important junctions in the city and chances are that you might find them absorbed in looking at the speeding traffic passing through the junction. They seem unmindful of the noxious gases and the dust pollution.

Over half-a-dozen youth, seated on moulded chairs at one corner of the five-road junction near the Ambedkar Statue, are busy jotting down something on sheets of paper. Some of the curious pedestrians and motorcyclists approach them with a puzzled look on their faces. What are they doing sitting at the busy junction?

They are counting the number of vehicles passing on each of the five roads in either direction. The youth, appointed by STUP Consultancy, Hyderabad, are conducting a traffic survey for the Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC). The objective is to know the traffic pattern and the flow of traffic as part of the GVMC' s proposal to construct flyovers.

The study is being conducted throughout the day and night in two shifts. The boys note down the number of slow moving, fast moving, engine-powered vehicles, bicycles, bullock carts...

There were 20 boys engrossed in their job at different corners of LIC junction on Wednesday. Curious passers-by were seen asking them as to what they were doing. The team leader Chintha Swamy Prakash Rao was seen asking the public not to disturb the boys.

"The traffic pattern around the Old Jail complex is bound to change after the widening of the road around it. The widened roads are bound to attract motorists, using other arterial roads, to use the new roads. The present study is being made to look into the feasibility of constructing flyovers, the number of lanes required, and other issues," GVMC Chief Engineer P. Panduranga Rao told THE HINDU.

He said it was too premature to comment on the project as the study has just begun.

"We will study the traffic volume at 12 junctions on the Convent junction - Siripuram route and Apollo Hospital - Maddilapalem route. The survey would be conducted 24-hours a day for a week at each of the junctions. Apart from this, a survey of heavy vehicles is being done in view of the presence of a large number of transport offices in Dabagardens and a topography survey would be done to study the buildings and their projections, if any, on to the roads," says K. Ratan Kumar, senior engineer, STUP Consultancy.

"A more accurate and scientific study can be made for a fraction of the money being spent on the survey, with the use of a computer and web cameras. Software could be developed for the purpose as part of a research project by Andhra University for automatic tracking of the traffic at the junctions. The web cameras record the accurate movement of the traffic and the information would be recorded by the computer," felt a man, who had considerable knowledge of the project, but did not want to be identified. "The software could be shared with other cities and towns in the country as also with Third World countries. The money saved could be utilised for the poor," he felt.

B. MADHU GOPAL

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