Rachakonda police roll up sleeves to unclog traffic hotspots

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| Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna

A dense residential area of Hyderabad, Rachakonda commissionerate houses 51 hotspots of traffic congestion. Official data says that peak hours witness an average of 4,000 to 5,000 vehicles an hour frequenting popular localities.

The otherwise breezy stretch from Mettuguda to Uppal comes to a screeching halt at Habsiguda’s bottleneck T-junction. Commuters stop at least twice at the signal during the evening rush hours, said Sai Prasad, a private employee from Marredpally.

A report from the Rachakonda Traffic Police identifies Uppal’s stretch from the U-turn at Survey of India to Chilkanagar T-junction, Habsiguda to Snehapuri T-junction, NFC bridge, RK Puram flyover, Radhika X roads, LB Nagar junction to LB Nagar Metro Station, LB Nagar X road, Sagar Y-junction, Hastinapuram junction and BN Reddy junction as major congestion points.

rachakonda | Photo Credit: The Hindu

“Peak hours in the commissionerate are 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. with an average waiting time of three minutes,” said the report. We have identified an average of 50 to 150 metres of congestion stretches in the commissionerate, said the chief of Rachakonda police G. Sudheer Babu. To tackle this, a number of measures are in place, including restricting entry of heavy vehicles during peak hours, deploying staff along with traffic patrol cars and motorcycles at all identified stretches, clearing footpath encroachments and fixing bollards at free lefts.

A resident of Neredmet, G. Pallavi says she is fed up with the lack of dividers on the RK Puram flyover. “This flyover witnesses so many minor accidents. People overtake vehicles by changing lanes and disrupt the opposite flow [of traffic]. We need a divider on this flyover as soon as possible,” she said.

Rachakonda has 15,653 surveillance cameras with 100 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and 100 Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) ones. “There is a necessity to increase the installation of cameras at all important locations/junctions and expansion of ITMS project to all junctions covering all lanes of the road for enhancing road safety,” said the commissioner.

Police shared that their future solutions include junction development, road widening, shifting of bus stops, construction of flyover/underpass and foot over bridges, providing parking places, installing traffic signals, promoting public transport system, increasing the ANPR cameras, study and analysis of traffic, improving coordination among all nodal agencies and intensifying traffic awareness campaigns.