Nagpur: Due to Nagpur Metro construction activity, major portion of the Central Avenue has been covered by NMRCL barricades, thereby causing congestions at few squares during peak hours only.
Studying the cause of such congestions and with solutions delegation of Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) led by its secretary Tejinder Singh Renu met Ravindrasinh Pardeshi – DCP Traffic and held discussion on the issues in length and also submitted memorandum. Jayesh Bhandarkar – Senior PI Traffic was also present in the meeting.
Tejinder Singh Renu submitted that entire Central Avenue remains chocked or congested due to Metro work is not a correct statement; but yes, there are pockets or particular squares where traffic is immensely slow and major culprits are the Autowalas who stand anywhere; many times 2-3 side by side for want of customers or letting their customers deboard from Auto. Likewise full size Star Bus movement on Central Avenue with bus-stops also causes traffic delays and mostly the bus driver stops the bus in the middle of the road itself which causes slow traffic movement behind, therefore only mini size buses should ply on Central Avenue.
Renu said, however the main cause for traffic slow movement is the incorrect traffic management during peak hours on squares like Gandhi Putla Square, Chandrashekhar Azad Square and Dosar Bhawan square; rest of the areas or square traffic mostly flows without much hindrance.
VTA submitted that Gandhi Putla square congestion is because of a major transformer pole in front of Taori Showroom which narrows the road considerably and local bus stop also happens to be adjacent to this transformer. Likewise on Chandrashekhar Azad Square, a Mazar (mausoleum) near Hotel Al Zam Zam causes major bottleneck which slows the traffic; although the Metro people have avoided barricading in this area however the ‘C’ formation due to this slows traffic considerably. Likewise another smaller mausoleum is situated on the other side of this square. Dosar Bhawan Square apart from having North Traffic Police Station has practically the worst traffic situation as hardly anyone follows traffic signals on this square. Moreover a signboard and new pole installed in front of Petrol Pump is on road, which needs to be removed.
Renu said that important point to consider is that if we have appropriate space ahead and no bottleneck, then only increasing space behind on road will help; it’s important to remove structures for free flow of traffic and disallowing slow moving vehicles or carts, with Autowalas to be compelled to follow traffic and park auto responsibly. And parallel back lanes of Central Avenue should be free of encroachments so that many two wheelers can use them thereby diluting traffic of Central Avenue.
DCP Traffic Ravindrasinh Pardeshi appreciated the valuable feedback submitted by VTA and assured that traffic department will try its best to resolve the issues at the earliest. He also said that City Police Commissioner Dr. K. Venkatesham is extremely pro active to resolve such issues as he personally takes all such issues for the betterment of the citizens.
Also present in VTA delegation were Hemant Trivedi, Amarjeet Singh Chawla, Rajesh Kanoongo, Saqib Parekh, Rohit Kanoongo & Harmanjeet Singh Baweja.
