VIJAYAWADA: Illegal and haphazard parking of vehicles along the major arterial roads and bylanes at Balaji Nagar in Krishna Lanka has turned a nightmare for commuters and pedestrians passing through the locality. The already narrow arterial roads between Kanaka Durga Varadhi and Balaji Nagar are a classic example for haphazard parking. Pedestrians complain that moving through the service road adjacent to National Highway has become really difficult owing to the haphazard parking on one side of the road.
“We often fear to commute on the roads in Balaji Nagar, which are narrow and having regular movement of heavy vehicles, especially speeding trucks. These zones may soon turn accident-prone, if the authorities fail to take action,” said K Nagalakshmi a daily commuter. Parking of vehicles in violation of rules is being mainly done by those running commercial establishments along these arterial roads. Most of these groups lack adequate parking on their premises and use the roadside without any fear of law.
Another major problem haunting in the locality is indiscriminate dumping of garbage on the side lanes of the road and near the dumper bins. In the absence of designated spots to throw garbage, it awaits the sanitation teams to remove it.
The garbage thrown mostly includes food waste which badly stinks leaving pungent smell. “The cleanliness issue always takes a back seat. Last week, one of my relatives came to our house from another city. He was surprised to see the piled-up garbage in the colony. The most planned colony should not have such scars on its face,” said another resident R Pratap Rao.
‘’We are aware of the traffic problem in the locality. Proposals have been submitted to city police and VMC a long time back to repair the service roads, besides widening the roads in order to ease traffic congestion but nothing has been done,’’ said VMC Circle-II officer. “Stringent action would be taken against the violators with the support of traffic police. We have already started acting against them. Barricades would be set up on one side of the road to check illegal parking,” he said.
At the other end, police authorities say the residents in these areas are the worst-affected as they cannot come out of their homes often because of vehicles parked in front of their gates. “They also find it difficult to take their vehicles inside. People park their vehicles somewhere far away and then walk to their homes,” they added.
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End of the road for pedestrians?
Parking of vehicles in violation of rules is being mainly done by those running commercial establishments along these arterial roads
Another major problem haunting in the locality is indiscriminate dumping of garbage on the side lanes of the road and near the dumper bins
People park their vehicles somewhere far away and then walk to their homes