Pick up points in Hyderabad city to ease traffic flow at night

Hyderabad: Every night, Hyderabad’s traffic junctions become chaotic thanks to private long-distance buses parked haphazardly, obstructing traffic and posing a risk to pedestrians as well as motorists.

The traffic police has not been making any serious efforts towards regulating the issue and over the years, the menace has spread from Telephone Bhavan near Lakdi-ka-Pul to major areas in Hyderabad and Cyberabad limits like Kachiguda, SR Nagar, KPHB, Miyapur, LB Nagar and Chandanagar.

Police officials say that they have been doing their best. However, no systematic measure is in place yet to regulate the age-old issue. A senior police official said, “We take action if some bus driver keeps his vehicle parked on the road too long, waiting for passengers. If passengers are picked up quickly and the bus drives on, no action is taken. After all, passengers also find it convenient to board buses in the city rather than travelling to some designated spot in the outskirts. If there is a concrete policy on the issue we can follow the same.”

When a senior Transport department official was asked about the same, he said that it was not RTA’s problem.

ACP traffic, Jitender, said, “Just two days ago we had a review meeting which also included private travel operators. We have decided upon six designated spots in the city from where the travel operators will pick up their passengers.”

Each of the six designated pick up points will have a limited number of buses of a fixed number of travel operators depending on their fleet size. All the six spots are in the city limits keeping the convenience of passengers in mind. The policy of these pick up points will be implemented after Ugadi.