VIJAYAWADA: Heavy increase in vehicular traffic in recent years has not only become a tedious problem for the police to manage but also has been giving a tough time to the pedestrians.With cases of pedestrians getting injured in their attempts at crossing roads being reported almost daily, the traffic police proposed that the construction of subways should be taken up to change the existing scenario.
The traffic police have been examining the possibilities of constructing subways at various busy junctions of the city, such as Benz Circle, Ramesh Hospital, Police Control Room (PCR) and NTR Circle. If everything goes as planned, people of Vijayawada will see subways coming up at three major junctions. Most of the junctions get crowded during the morning and evening hours with many schools, colleges, offices, shopping malls and theatres located in the area.
To provide a permanent solution to the menace, a team of traffic police conducted a study on the behaviour of the pedestrians at Benz Circle, prepared the project report and submitted it to the higher-ups.“The unmanned crossings at several busy junctions not only pose grave danger to the pedestrians but also disrupts vehicular traffic. If we introduce subways at all the problematic junctions, the issues will be resolved. Subways are a big hit in Chennai, Bengaluru and other cities,” said DCP Traffic Y Ravi Shankar Reddy.
“A report explaining the need for building subways will be submitted to the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) soon and we will try to get the project launched as early as possible. Not just the subways, there is a huge need to construct foot overbridges for pedestrians instead of them jumping dividers and medians to cross the roads. If we create proper infrastructure, the public will make use of them,” the DCP opined.
At present, the city has two foot overbridges - one near Eenadu office at Benz Circle and the other near PWD Grounds.“Unfortunately, people are not using them for various reasons. By posting a traffic personnel, we will ensure that all the pedestrians make use of the bridges. In the coming days, more such bridges will come up at all the traffic sensitive locations,” the DCP said.
When contacted, corporation officials said that they welcomed the proposal and expressed willingness to create necessary infrastructure that offered safety to the road users.“Such projects are welcome. Not only safety, but subways also help in bringing awareness on road safety among the public. The report on subways is yet to come from the police department. Once it comes to our notice, our team will work out on it,” said the VMC city planner Lakshmana Rao.