Traffic snarls at Benz Circle give commuters the jitters

Vijayawada: It is horrendous experience for people trapped in traffic jams while crossing Benz Circle where construction works of flyover are going on. The Benz Circle connects Chennai and Kolkata National Highways and links Machilipatnam with Vijayawada.

Highlights:

• Benz Circle is one of the major junctions in Vijayawada
• The national highway is turning it into a busiest traffic congestion point
• The traffic from all directions to Benz Circle is paralysed due to ongoing construction work of the flyover
• The three-lane road of the national highway is congested and all the vehicles have to make their way through the busy junction.
• At peak hours (from 8 am to 10 am and 4 pm to 7 pm), the commuters face a harrowing time

Anybody preferring to cross the junction to reach one's destination should compromise on time. For instance, a teacher to attend school located at Patamata need to wait 20 minutes just to cross the road connecting NTR Circle and Benz Circle. Coming all the way from Currency Nagar via Ramesh Hospital and Benz Circle, the vehicle ride proves a tedious task.

Imagine people, who accomplishes this Herculean feat twice a day to waste many hours of valuable time, and get exposed to noise and air pollution. The traffic problem is turning out from bad to worse.

Motorists, light motor vehicles and heavy trucks have to make their way through the narrow single line road as the flyover construction work was started. Benz Circle is one of the major junctions in Vijayawada. The national highway is turning it into a busiest traffic congestion point in the recent times with the growing number of vehicles day by day.

The traffic from all directions to Benz Circle was paralysed due to the ongoing construction work of the flyover. The three-lane road of the national highway was congested to single line and all the vehicles, including motorist, cars, trucks and heavy earth movers, had to make their way through the busy junction.

At peak hours (from 8 am to 10 am and 4 pm to 7 pm), the commuters have to suffer to pass through Benz Circle as the centre is surrounded with educational institutions, shopping malls and the heavy trucks.

M Ramesh, accountant in the government department, said that since June he was experiencing traffic congestion from Ramesh Hospital signal to Benz Circle Junction, and which would take an hour to reach Screw Bridge, with unpredicted rain and scorching sun and vehicle pollution. It is a tough time to negotiate the traffic.

Andhra Loyola College of Engineering final year student J Siddhu said that for the past few weeks traffic at Benz Circle was a bottleneck which takes more than 30 minutes to cross at peak hours and he would be late to college sometimes. G Kaavya of Bengaluru, said that it has become an uphill task to take a bus to Bengaluru from Benz Circle after construction works were started.

Traffic head constable Gangadhar said that negotiating the vehicles through the narrow road was killing a lot of time in spite of traffic diversions. He said that most of the heavy vehicles coming from Machilipatnam road are being diverted to Pantakaluva road.

He said that from 7 am to 11 pm, four traffic policemen would monitor the traffic, along with traffic Sub-Inspector, without automatic signalling. A senior traffic police officer said the department diverted traffic after consultations with the National Highway Authority of India officials, VMC and other departments.

By Ch Pradeep