Hyderabad: Trifurcation of the road from Zee Hotel towards the entrance to the Secunderabad railway station, has provided major relief to pedestrians and motorists. The movement of vehicles has improved, though there are complaints from traders located in the buildings that their business has been affected.
“It has been done on an experimental basis and the movement of vehicular traffic and pedestrians is comparatively better. There used to be traffic jams every day at the station entrance; their frequency has come down,” said Mahankali traffic inspector T. Swamy.
The traffic police has divided the road with barricades and cones and formed a lane for pedestrians on the left, a carriageway for cars, cabs, autorickshaws and other vehicles headed for the station at the centre, and a third one for RTC buses. The arrangement provides space for RTC drivers to take a U-turn just before the railway station entrance, so that the road does not get jammed.
“It is like an exclusive carriageway for RTC buses. Though other vehicles enter the lane, it is good as we are able to make a U-turn without much problem. The traffic cops should try to increase the carriageway for buses which is a little narrow,” said RTC driver C. Srisailam.
A majority of cab drivers and owners of private vehicles said the three-carrigeway system should be continued for some more time. “The traffic jams for shorter durations. Vehicles have a dedicated lane and we can enter the bus lane when it is free,” cab driver K. Raju Goud.
He said before the carriageway was implemented, it used to take between 15 and 20 minutes to reach the station from the gurudwara. This travel time has come down drastically,” he said.
Though pedestrians said vendors were occupying the footpath, at least they have a dedicated lane to walk. “Vehicles are crashing through the cones demarcating the lane for pedestrians and entering the area. Traffic police should place cement-blocks to barricade the pedestrian lane,” said Ms Anuradha M, who works in a store in Palika Bazaar near the railway station.
More time needed for transit hub
The multi model transit-hub at Secunder-abad railway station comprising bus bays, cab and auto stands will take at least three years to be ready. Though Hyderabad Metro Rail has been given the 12-acre land of the old Gandhi hospital, they will first complete the construction of Metro Rail followed by construction of a Sainik Bhavan in a little over two acres in lieu of defence land near Ganesh temple and Parade grounds in Secunderabad.
Work on the proposed multi-model transit-hub will start only after a year. Another five acres would be utilised by Metro Rail for constructing its station, a 200 metre-skywalk and other commercial development.
