VIJAYAWADA: Swearing-in ceremony of the ministers at the Secretariat in Velagapudi exacerbated traffic woes in various parts of the city on Monday. With the police stopping vehicles and keeping restrictions on commuters as part of VIP security protocol, people especially motorcyclists struggled with major traffic congestion in various parts of the city. Commuters faced inconveniences covering even short distances from morning 9 am to evening 4 pm.
Several office goers, businessmen, college and school students faced troubles due to traffic jams in One-Town, Bhavanipuram, Krishna Lanka and Undavalli of Guntur district with traffic restrictions imposed on Prakasam barrage.
Shockingly, the traffic wing of Vijayawada city police did not alert the public about the traffic diversions in the wake of the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministers. “In order to make a free way for ministers, we were forced to wait under scorching heat for more than 20 minutes,” rued a businessman Sarath Kota.
Shaik Basha, who travels from Gollapudi to reach his office in Labbipet said that he was aware about the traffic congestion and he changed his usual route to office via Chittinagar tunnel. However, he was 30 minutes late to the office.
Same is the case with college student Karthik as he had to take Varadhi instead of Prakasam barrage to reach his college and it took him to travel an extra four kilometres.“It would be better if the police informed us in advance about the diversions so that we can plan our travel according to it,” he said.