Vijayawada: Travelling through the city during peak hours has become a problem for the commuters. It takes a minimum of 20 minutes to travel from Ramavarappadu to Benz Circle with many heavy vehicles passing through the NH daily. To avoid wasting time and energy, people in the city have been demanding construction of an outer ring road to ease traffic congestion and snarls.
The movement of heavy vehicles in the city has been leading to many problems like the traffic getting stalled for a few minutes if the driver of the heavy vehicle plans to take a turn or negotiate a curve.
The NH-16 which connects Chennai and Kolkata passes through the city for a stretch of 21 km till Gannavaram. All major junctions in this route witness traffic jam in the peak hours.
After construction of the inner ring road connecting Hyderabad and Vijayawada, vehicles moving between Hyderabad and Kolkata have stopped entering the city and traffic snarls have reduced by 50 per cent.
"The traffic in the city has increased after the announcement of the Capital city, leading to snarls frequently.
The government is ignoring projects which have to be given priority. The outer ring road (ORR) is needed for Vijayawada and Amaravati to prevent entry of heavy vehicles into the city, which have been claiming many lives during mishaps.
Shelving these proposals, the government has focused on the Kanaka Durga flyover which also got delayed by a year. The Benz Circle flyover is also getting delayed intensifying the traffic problems," pointed out former legislator K. Subba Raju, who staged a protest demanding ORR for the city, on Thursday.
"The state government should stop fooling the citizens with unnecessary publicity and learn to prioritise projects. The movement of VIPs from the Gannavaram airport is increasing the traffic problems on Eluru road at busy junctions like Enikepadu, Nidamanuru, Prasa-dampadu," said YSRC city working president Malladi Vishnu Vardhan and urged the TD government to construct ORR at the earliest to reduce motorists’ problems on the roads in the city.
