Vijayawada: Traffic hassles haunt locals

Vijayawada: Hospitals and its related establishments mushroomed in Suryaraopet area creating traffic hassles to locals and regular commuters. The 60-year-old Suryaraopet is one of the biggest and busiest areas in Vijayawada city, where vehicle parking is a challenge to people.

When the colony was formed over six decades ago, many professionals like lawyers, doctors, teachers and government employees settled in the area.

Later, the area gradually changed into commercial area over the last five decades and became a hub for hospitals, labs, medical stores, surgical equipment shops and blood banks.

It was estimated that there are around 300 hospitals in Suryaraopet and adjacent areas. Hospitals draw large number of patients from Krishna, Guntur, Khammam and West Godavari districts.

The underground drainage system set up around 30 years ago is outdated and the drains are unable to cope up with the increasing sewage water. Also, water consumption drastically increased in the last three decades resulting in overflowing of water from manholes.

The area lacks proper storm water drainage system. During every rainy season, water will get stagnated on roads, particularly near Eluru road area, causing inconvenience to commuters and local residents.

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) uses advanced machinery to clean the drains and manholes regularly. Maintaining cleanliness on roads in commercial area is a challenging task to the VMC.

A resident of Suryaraopet, S Bhaskar said that storm water gets stagnated near Karnati Rammohan Rao school area during rainy season due to poor drainage system. He said vehicles will not start if rainwater enters engines. The VMC has constructed storm water drains on a few roads but are not connected properly. As a result, storm water is not flowing properly and stagnates in the streets.

Traffic congestion is one of the biggest problems in Suryaraopet, particularly at Nakkal road, which is the important road in the area. There will be heavy traffic during morning and evening on this road, which houses scores of hospitals, medical shops and labs.

The commuters demanded the government to widen the road for free flow of traffic.

Ambulances, cars and other vehicles parking on the road is very common in the area. Traffic police failed to take action on the vehicle owners. More than 80 per cent of the buildings don't have parking place, hence all the vehicles would be parked on roads and streets.

Number 5 street in the colony is very busy with buses, autos and other vehicles plying during morning and evening. Traffic police are unable to regulate and prevent accidents on this route.