Visakhapatnam: Shopping spree to mark Sankranti festival has fueled traffic snarls at Jagadamba Junction, Daba Gardens, Poorna Market, Dwarakanagar and a few other areas in the city. The traffic cops were of no help as the traffic spilled over the roads and motorists were compelled to leave behind their vehicles along roadsides. With Sankranti round the corner, the city is witnessing heavy traffic jams. Roads in the major commercial areas are chocked with traffic and the police are struggling to check the chaos.
Everyone comes to Jagadamba Junction, Daba Gardens, Dwarakangar, Gajuwaka and a few others areas either in cars or on two-wheelers. As the city does not have minimum parking spaces, the vehicles are par-ked on the sides of the road, resulting in traffic block, says ADCP (Traffic) K Mahendra Patrudu. “Though we have formed special teams to mitigate the traffic snarls, indiscipline moto-rists are adding trouble and blocking the roads,” he added.
It is very unfortunate that GVMC has utterly failed to take action against the management of shopping malls for not providing parking space. For every festival, families are travelling to the city for shopping and entertainment. Many new eateries have opened in the city, but not a single parking lot was set up in the past one decade, says B. Anil Kumar, a social activist.
The traffic problem is worse on 1.5 km stretch between Jagadamba Junc-tion, One Town, Dwaraka-nagar, Gopalapatnam and Gajuwaka during the even-ings as most of the areas are dotted with textile and jewellery shops. During the festive seasons, particularly Sankranti, main shopping areas should be declared four-wheeler-free zones for free flow of traffic, opined Ch. Anil Kumar, a software professional.
