HYDERABAD: The Nagarjuna Circle right at the point from where the Begumpet flyover begins has become a traffic bottleneck. This is because the traffic that comes from Jalagam Venagal Rao Park and from Jubilee Hills merges before the flyover begins.
The traffic snarls keep occurring because a part of traffic stream that comes from Jubilee Hills takes the flyover and the rest take the road beneath it and move towards Punjagutta.
The traffic that arrives from Vengala Rao Park, after piercing through the traffic that moves towards Jubilee Hills from Punjagutta, then reaches the point from where the Begumpet flyover begins. Here, too, a part of the traffic takes the flyover and the rest of it takes the road towards Punjagutta.
In the narrow strip of the land, four traffic streams intersect with one another, which leads to traffic snarls which are especially more painful during the evening hours.Traffic officials say a bottleneck has formed at the junction due to two reasons.
Firstly, the placement of multiple bus stops right in front of the Punjagutta signal, and secondly, only a small fraction of motorists opt to take the Begumpet Flyover, while most vehicles, especially RTC buses, take the road below to turn left towards Ameerpet. However, there is currently no plan to widen the road around the area to ease the flow of traffic.
Speaking to The New Indian Express on the condition of anonymity, a Hyderabad Traffic Police official said, "One of the major problems is that the road is a two-lane road, and there are at least two bus stops on the way. So, every time a bus stops to pick up passengers, which is quite often especially during peak office hours, the bottleneck gets even more aggravated."
A shopkeeper on the same roadsaid, "Apart from buses, autos and other public transport vehicles such as cabs are quite a menace as they end up parking incorrectly while picking up passengers, which often causes the traffic snarls."
However, officials from the Hyderabad Traffic Police said no request for widening the road has been made from their end.