Traffic chaos on Central Bazar Rd
| Date :10-Jan-2023 |
Staff Reporter
In the run up to meet of a segment of G-20 slated in city for March, authorities have gone in action mode to take up construction of cement roads as part of giving a facelift. Although a planned activity, in absence of co-ordination between different agencies, the movement of traffic has gone for a toss putting citizens to inconvenience.
Two busy stretches, Central Bazar Road and Amravati Road have been partially closed for construction of cement roads. As both roads cut through middle of the city it was expected that ample measures would be put in place by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Nagpur City Police and National Highway Authority officials to avoid traffic chaos. However, on very the first day of the cement road work, citizens faced traffic snarls on the Central Bazar Road. The road stretch from Gujarat Point at Lokmat Square till Kalpana Building T-point has been cordoned off for the road construction.
The simultaneous work on busy stretches of city puts pressure on the already overburdened roads. To make matters worse, lack of discipline and unruly drivers means ‘Jungle Raj’ prevailed on the city roads.
Since only a small lane remained available for traffic on Central Bazar Road, the NMC and city police should have ensured that the stretch is kept free for movement of vehicles only and banned parking by roadside. In absence of the same, people had a tough time negotiating the said stretch resulting in traffic jams throughout the road. Also, the contractor failed to put up temporary dividers on other side of Central Bazar Road (on Centre Point side) that would have enabled faster and straighter movement of vehicles.
Central Bazar Road also houses hospitals and offices plus popular hotels. The stretch also provides connectivity to Ramdaspeth and Bajaj Nagar area. Therefore , there is no let up in traffic movement and in absence of parking space in the buildings, vehicles are parked by the road resulting in traffic-jams complicating the already unruly, unplanned and not observance of norms by each and everyone.
Saurabh Suryawanshi, a resident of Rahate Colony, questioned the sudden decision of closing of the road. It has caused great inconvenience to the commuters. Passing through the road has become a time consuming process as the vehicle is stuck in traffic jams. The haphazardly parked vehicles on the streets worsen the situation as very narrow space is left for drivers to negotiate the stretch, he said.
Parking of four-wheelers on Central Bazar Road on the under construction portion should be banned till further orders, Suryawanshi suggested. The authorities diverted the traffic, but there were no traffic police personnel on either side of the road stretch to guide the driver and Suryawanshi said, traffic cops be deployed immediately to ensure strict observance of norms by road users. On Amravati Road also traffic movement was slowed down as entire stretch till Varsity Square from Variety Square was cordoned off for the construction of cement road. Especially, city buses movement was hit as they used to parked near Maharajbag and it was busy pick up point for commuters.
So during the next two months, citizens are going to find it difficult to drive through the middle portion of city till the road construction is not completed.