Red-flagging Traffic jams Infrastructure for the people, inconvenience to the people

 

 

 

Encountering crowded roads while riding in city during rush hours is a normal day-to-day affair for Nagpurians. However, this experience turns harrowing when riders have to also brave dangerous potholes, uneven and poorly lit roads and shoddy unfinished civil infrastructure work enroute their destinations. Scenes that play in the roads of West Nagpur on the stretch between LAD Square to VNIT Square right up till Shraddhanand Peth Square and then towards Mate Chowk up to Ambazari turn for Hingna are anything but pleasant.

 

 

 

Vehicles crawling at snail’s pace, non-stop honking sounds, blocking of traffic signal space entirely causing jams on both sides has now become standard fare on this stretch during peak hours. Despite always being a critical route connecting Hingna (MIDC) and newly developed localities around the Ring Road with West and East Nagpur, traffic movement here was more or less manageable even during rush hours. Previously, it hardly required presence of traffic cops. But, now, each signal is manned by at least three policemen struggling hard to manage the chaos. A major reason for this traffic tragedy specially between LAD Square and Shraddhanand Peth Square is the ‘make break -- break make’ policy of the local administration. Around six months ago, a fresh road was laid in this stretch, which was subsequently dug up for drainage pipe work, hastily filled, and then covered with a coat of tar, leaving behind an uneven surface and dangerous potholes that are now causing major woes for the riders also. Since the stretch between LAD Square and VNIT Square is poorly lit, riders specially on two-wheelers find it difficult to maintain balance of their vehicles on this uneven path post sunset.

 

The extra alternate route traffic plying on this road to and fro due to closure of Ambazari (Vivekananda Statue) route which connects Amravati Road to Hingna, quadruples the number of vehicles on this already-choked stretch making it absolute nightmarish experience for the riders. The situation between VNIT Square and Bajaj Nagar Square is equally grim as even months after laying the concrete road in the stretch, the dug footpaths on sides still remain incomplete without any caution-signs inviting mishaps. On weekdays, daily there arises a situation when vehicle-riders try to avoid potholes in front and the vehicles behind come pretty close to the vehicle in front despite applying brakes swiftly. The additional traffic pours in from the lanes, and just adds to the congestion on this route. The wrong-siders and signal jumpers just make the matters worse. How long will this continue? Well, the people are eagerly waiting for relief through the appropriate actions of the authorities concerned at the earliest.