Visakhapatnam: Steps to ease traffic at prime city junctions

Visakhapatnam : In a step to match up to the growing number of vehicles in the busiest Visakhapatnam city, which is all set to become the executive capital of the state, efforts are on to streamline traffic and bring down road accidents.

With vehicular movement increasing at an alarming pace with each passing day in the city, absence of widening of the roads and lack of construction of new flyovers cause severe traffic bottlenecks at various junctions across the port city.

Following a clear mismatch between the rising vehicular movement and lack of supportive infrastructure along with traffic violations of the commuters is resulting in road accidents.

In order to keep a check on this, the road safety committee is focusing on every minute detail. As a part of the exercise, some of the congested junctions have been identified and they will be given a top priority in reducing traffic woes. The priority-based junctions include Asilmetta, Maddilapalem, Hanumantawaka, Car Shed, Kancharapalem, Birla junction, Bhaji junction, Sriharipuram, Kurmannapalem and Beach Road.

Along with considering serious measures to improve road infrastructure, the focus is also on widening the existing service roads to ease the traffic. Adding to the traffic streamlining efforts, the district administration is keen on utilising cellar parking facilitated in commercial units for parking vehicles alone.

District Collector A Mallikarjuna gave instructions to GVMC Commissioner CM Saikanth Varma towards this direction.

Contributing significantly to control road mishaps, the city police have intensified its surveillance on traffic violations. A special drive has been launched to take stringent action against those indulging in drunk driving, using cellphones while driving, not wearing helmets and not fastening seat belts among other violations.

As encroachments along the footpaths are posing a serious risk to pedestrians, the civic body and traffic police team up to clear them at the earliest without exempting any locality. Sharing details with The Hans India, Regional Transport Officer RCH Srinivasa Rao says, “Special drives have always been instrumental in preventing road accidents.

With the coordination of concerned departments, the objective is to achieve an accident-free city in future.” Following a series of global summits and major events in Visakhapatnam, the city roads have improved drastically in recent months. With the concerned departments working with a sole agenda to control road accidents and improve infrastructure, the results are going to be much more effective in the days to come.