Kurnool: With increasing traffic challenges on the road, Kurnool police devised a plan to regulate unruly autorickshaws by providing a separate lane to them. In already congested roads, the earmarking of separate lanes for a specific vehicle is not an easy task.
Instead of easing traffic, it has further added to the woes of the commuters. “Special lanes for autorickshaws is a good idea,” a retired engineer Subba Rayudu said.
A row of traffic cones were kept in front of Kurnool General Hospital, RTC bus stand, Bellary chowrasta. The porous lanes gave the autorickshaws the liberty to suddenly swerve on to the lanes from main thoroughfares.
Often auto drivers were seen picking up quarrels with other auto drivers requesting them not to stop in separate lanes as they were seen soliciting passengers.
“The Kurnool traffic police had left the footpaths which were occupied by petty businessmen. In front of main shops on the road, vehicles were parked haphazardly blocking the space of the motorists on the main roads. Instead of addressing zig zag parking and avoiding parking in front of shops, the traffic police had devised separate lanes for small stretches. This is too problematic,” said Sarvesh, an auto driver.
The traffic at Bhupal complex, C -Camp circle, Bellary chowrasta, Hotel Mourya, Railway Station road is too cumbersome. Pedestrians find it difficult to negotiate the road as autos, two wheelers criss cross the road adjacent to Jyothi Mall.
In Kurnool city, 35,000 auto rickshaws ply every day carrying passengers from place to place.
Sharing of auto space, serves as an alternative transport facility for the people. But the autos are driven by youngsters, drunk drivers, and old people with low vision. Ramakanth Reddy, an employee in a private school narrated how an auto driver with low vision had driven them to the edge of a flowing canal at Handri some time back. He urged the police to check vision fitness of auto drivers.
Kurnool city traffic DSP N. Sudhakar Reddy said that the congestion on the roads was largely due to autorickshaws and vehicles from other states to go to pilgrim centres like Tirupati, Srisailam, Vijayawada Kanakadurgamma, Mantralayam, Mahanandi and others areas via Kurnool city.
There were two national highway roads passing through the city and naturally the influx of vehicles added to the cause of traffic congestion. “There are nearly 35,000 autorickshaws operating in the city. Public transportation like city buses that ply within the city is almost non-existent. If city roads have separate lanes for autos, there would automatically be sufficient space on the roads,” the DSP said.
