HYDERABAD: Roundabouts may be built at cross-sections to ensure smooth flowing traffic, but drivers seem to prefer taking the shorter right turn, termed as 'Illegal Right', to reach their destination. This results in traffic jams and an increase in the wait time of others. The practice is commonly seen at the roundabout of the Congress hand statue at Nanalnagar.
“Normally we have about 3 officials at the roundabout to keep a check on the violation. However because of Ramazan, we have only one person now manning this roundabout. Illegal right turns have always been a challenge for us and a fine of '200 is slammed on the offenders. But now we are planning on stricter rules to stop this practice it as it leads to accidents. Another area which suffers from the same traffic violation is the ORR at Gachibowli,” says Sri. T. Madhu, Sub-Inspector of Tolichowki, Hyderabad Traffic Police.
The ORR at Gachibowli, is often packed at peak hours making it difficult for traffic personnel to navigate.
“Sometimes to avoid piling up of traffic at the outer ring road, the traffic personnel allow passengers to take illegal right turns. This is done only at peak hours to ensure that no lane waits too long. However, the same cannot be said for the roundabouts at Khairatabad, Abids and others where even with lesser volume of traffic, people do not follow the rules. The roundabout at Nanalnagar that sees a lot of violation. I have written to the GHMC zonal commissioner to reconstruct and reduce it. However, it keeps getting postponed due to budgetary cuts. Once this is done, the traffic flow will be much smoother," says traffic police officials, Tolichowki.
