Citizens of Nagpur have become used to inconvenience caused by continuous development work going on in city for quite some time now. Authorities then makes arrangements to reduce the hardships of the citizens. But, Jadhav Square at Ganeshpeth seems to be a unique case, where a temporary roundabout made of drums is placed in circular shape around the tree at the center of the square to streamline traffic. The arrangement, though, seems to have added to the traffic woes instead of solving them. The Jadhav Square lies at junction of roads coming from Mokshadham and going towards Mahal, which is used by most of commuters to reach main ST bus stop, and road from Baidyanath Square to Agyram Devi Square, another stretch of road used heavily by commuters. The road becomes even more congested as the auto-rickshaws, and e-rickshaws crowd the area near entrance of the bus stop to look for passengers or to drop them off at the bus stop.

 

With the traffic of ST buses arriving from all over Vidarbha, and various private bus operators plying their buses from the vicinity, the traffic at the square uses to bunch up in multiple lane circles making it hard to traverse by commuters. To streamline the traffic, the authorities made a temporary roundabout. However, the radius of roundabout has increased due to the drums, leaving less than half the original road width for vehicles. The vehicles arriving at the square are constantly competing with each other to occupy the same space on road, which often lead to huge traffic jams at the junction. Abhilasha Suke, a resident of Untkhana, who use this road regularly, said, “The temporary round-about has added to chaos and made the situation worse. Many times, the buses backup long and it takes 15 to 20 minutes just to pass this road.”

 

The situation worsen if the round-about is being used by state and private buses at the same time. The Hitavada reporter witnessed a school bus and a private bus stuck at the round-about, creating a long traffic jam. A local shop owner, on the condition of anonymity, explained that scenes like these have become a common occurrence. He said, “Whenever multiple buses use the roundabout, it creates a traffic jam more often than not. The auto-rickshaws near entrance of the bus stop make it hard for buses to pass smoothly, hampering the traffic on all sides of the square.” Even though the intention of authorities behind the installation of temporary roundabout seems to be noble, the effects have not been as per the expectations. The authorities might consider reviewing the results of the arrangement and come up with a solution that actually resolves the issue and streamline traffic, rather than making it worse.