VIJAYAWADA: While the private travel buses are chocking the traffic at Ramavarappadu junction, police are issuing challans to those vehicles which come to drop off their near and dear citing illegal parking. The officials on the one hand allow the private travel buses to stop at the busiest junction in the city to enable passengers to board the bus and on the other hand impose fines for stopping vehicles at the junction for a few minutes.
Most private buses have made Ramavarappdu a pickup point on either side of the National Highway – 16 (NH-16). While there exists free space for the buses and other vehicles to stop on the southern side for those going towards Hyderabad or Chennai, the northern side road has no such facility. The highway also takes a sharp turn leaving no space for the vehicles to stop.
Despite the space constraints at the junction where traffic gets accumulated from four sides, the private travels made it a pickup point. Though it is convenient for passengers to board the bus at Ramavarappadu, regular traffic takes a hit during night as private buses makes a bee line for the junction. What makes things worse for the passengers is that the traffic police are not allowing them to stop their vehicles and are issuing challans even though the vehicle stops only for a few minutes.
M Gopikrishna, a resident of Gunadala who received a challan for illegal parking, shared his experience with traffic police. “I went to drop my sister who wanted to catch a bus to Visakhapatnam. I stopped my car at the pickup point for hardly five minutes. I did not even get down from the car knowing well about the traffic problem at the junction. Before my sister got down and boarded the bus, traffic police issued a challan to me for illegal parking” he said.
ADCP traffic, T Sarkar, said they are planning to utilise the freeway road available adjacent to the highway for private travels buses. He acknowledged the problem at Ramavarappadu and said they are working on solutions.
Deputy transport commissioner (DTC) for Krishna district, M Purendra said they are working on an alternate solution by shifting pickup point of private travels out from the city. “We will place the issue before the road safety committee in the next meeting. The private travels can ferry passengers from various locations in smaller vehicles to the pickup point on the outskirts of the city without creating traffic snarls in the city. We will come up with a workable solution very soon.”
