Kurnool: Traffic congestion on Kurnool City roads has been on a steady rise with the increase in the number of vehicles and their novice drivers, on-going road widening work across the city and adequate traffic personnel to monitor and guide the flow. With a population of 5.5 lakh and aiming to become a 'smart city', Kurnool presents a picture of clogged arteries, often choking vehicular moment. The city has a total road length of 519.22 km.
One of the main causes tor traffic snarls is the nearly 50,000 auto rickshaws with many of their drivers not having a regular license. The roads seem to be flooded with passenger autos driven by self-employed youths, many of them not having a license to drive. These youth, while lacking any road sense or traffic literacy, are seen to be in a feverish competition to make a living out of it, said Deputy Transport Commissioner B. Pramila.
While several of them do not have driving license, some of them do not even have LLR, she said. They are penalised heavily whenever they are caught during random checking by the department authorities, she added. Though a pass in Class VIII is mandatory for getting license, the government has made some relaxations and permitted granting LLRs after getting self attested certificates from the concerned drivers and owners that would spare them heavy penalties, she averred.
“We are conducting special camps on Sundays to auto drivers to comply with license norms”, she said. Autos and road side vending tables make movement of vehicles on the road a difficult task. The main roads have not been widened as per the needs of the people owing to political pressures for many years. Three and four-wheelers are forced to park one km away from the main road.
The parallel roads of the main road have also not been widened to ease traffic movement. With an average of 3,000 new vehicles entering the over-burdened city's roads every month, controlling the ever increasing traffic has become a big head-ache, especially with the haphazardly planned bus stops in the city.
