Gridlock continues for second day at Chandmari roundabout on Maharaj Prithu Flyover
Despite the deployment of additional traffic personnel to regulate the movement of vehicles, the situation did not witness much improvement.
The roundabout atop Chandmari junction (AT Image)
GUWAHATI, March 16: Traffic congestion continued for the second consecutive day at the Chandmari roundabout on the Maharaj Prithu flyover, causing inconvenience to commuters even on Sunday.
Despite the deployment of additional traffic personnel to regulate the movement of vehicles, the situation did not witness much improvement. Long queues of vehicles were seen moving slowly for most of the day.
Officials of the Public Works Department (Roads) said that the possibility of congestion at the roundabout had been anticipated earlier. However, it remains unclear what specific corrective measures had been taken to address the issue.
A PWD (R) official said that traffic management at the junction now falls under the purview of the traffic police and there was little the department could do to manage it. Meanwhile, the traffic police are also planning to install traffic signals at the roundabout to streamline the flow of vehicles.
However, PWD (Roads) officials expressed apprehensions whether the installation of signals alone would be sufficient to ease the persistent congestion at the location.
“The traffic situation here has become unbearable. Even on a Sunday it took me nearly 15 minutes to cross the roundabout,” said a commuter.
“If emergency vehicles are also stuck for so long, it clearly shows how serious the problem is. Authorities must take immediate steps,” said a resident.
On Saturday, several vehicles, including emergency service vehicles, had to wait for nearly half an hour to cross the roundabout due to the heavy traffic congestion.
Questions are now being raised if any study was conducted on whether the flyover could ease traffic on the stretch, before the project was executed.
“Earlier, the Chandmari flyover had to cater to traffic coming from only two directions. Now, after the roundabout was built, it will have to handle traffic from four directions. Even common sense says there would congestion. Wonder, how the government failed to anticipate it,” a regular commuter said.
By
Staff Reporter