HYDERABAD: The Punjagutta traffic police are cracking down on commuters taking ‘right’ turn at the Punjagutta junction for the past one week, which ironically, has led to heavy traffic pile up and confusion on the link roads from Ameerpet, Greenlands road, Erramanzil and Nagarjuna circle road.
The junction, which is unmanned, is a no-right turn junction which doesn’t allow people to take a right from any of the four directions, and only allows them to take U-turns, which are located much ahead of the junctions.
This, however, is not known to many, leading to confusion on the roads, as once people take a U-turn, there is no infrastructure to allow for free left turns.
According to commuters, the critical junction lacks basic road infrastructure to sustain the proportion of vehicles it sees. For instance, the junction sees heavy pedestrian movement from Nagarjuna circle towards roads leading to Ameerpet and Begumpet. While pedestrians at any given point are large in number, there is no pedestrian signal operating for them, encouraging jaywalking.
There are no proper stop lines or zebra crossings either, which aggravate the confusion. With plans mooted to have the new Assembly at Erramanzil, this junction could further turn into a critical bottleneck.
“Only one pedestrian refuge island exists ahead of Hyderabad Central mall. None of the other three sides even have a proper footpath,” said Ravi Prasad, a student frequenting the area.
Some traffic volunteers under the banner of Traffic Volunteer Force- Hyderabad who manage the junction every Friday, note that the junction at its four turning points itself has large establishments which do not have sufficient parking, and obstruct the flow of traffic.
This includes the Punjagutta PS which has blocked the free left and a few popular restaurants who that have insufficient parking space which add to the obstruction on the right of way. “The roads lack clear markings like that of free left, or dividers for the U-turn. They made it a no-right unmanned junction, but there is enforcement only sometimes which encourages people to break the rules. There must be a permanent resolution to this with efforts from the GHMC and the traffic police,” said Raja Sekhar Reddy, traffic volunteer.
The volunteers submitted a detailed report to the Panjagutta traffic police to rectify the signal timings, road infra and CCTV vigilance in April this year, but no changes were incorporated, they rue.
As of now, on trial basis, traffic coming from Nagarjuna circle, and from Begumpet is allowed to take a right turn at the junction. However, traffic from Erramanzil and Ameerpet will have to continue taking U-turns.