Visakhapatnam: Traffic snarls cut down visitors' joy

Visakhapatnam: Áll roads are leading to Lammasingi, Araku and a few others parts of Vizag Agency what with many visitors and tourists thronging the places to witness the thick fog and nature’s beauty. Vehicular traffic has been out of control on the ghat roads at Lammasingi and Araku for the past few days and thousands of tourists suffered for hours together in traffic jams.

Tourists expressed displeasure over the traffic snarls on the ghat road in between S Kota and Araku and also between Downuru and Lammasingi. Enveloped in a thick veil of mist, the virgin valleys of Lammasingi have attracted campers and bikers in large numbers from parts of the Andhra and Telangana as Lammasingi has been recording around  3 degrees Celsius in the last few days.

“I have visited Lammasingi during the peak winter in 2016, but this time I witnessed heavy traffic jams for almost over 2 km on both sides. There were no traffic police like in Vizag city and the roads are narrow, hence it was jam-packed with hundreds of vehicles,” said K. Murali Prasad, a tourist from Vijayawada who visited Lammasingi on Tuesday.

The ghat road towards Araku was also congested with thousands of vehicles as most of the tourists have been heading towards Araku, the beautiful valley in Andhra. In Lammasingi region, the local cops, with the support of CRPF personnel, cleared the traffic whereas in Araku ghat road, the tourists had faced hardship due to delay in police response said sources.

V. Raju Padal said that Lammasingi may attract thousands of tourists on December 31 and January 1 so that the police officials must have to deploy some cops at Lammasingi and Tajangi area to maintain the public order and also regulate the traffic, he added. Over, 1,200 vehicles had gone to Araku Valley from Vizag city in the past two days and the police are expecting heavy traffic snarls likely on Wednesday also.