more-in After the trial run of the one-way traffic plan on Beach Road began on Sunday, the City Police are not only planning to iron out the flaws in it, but also replicate the same on some key roads where heavy traffic snarls have become the order of the day. In an attempt to handle the huge traffic flow and mitigate parking woes on Beach Road, the City Police (Traffic wing) has imposed one-way traffic rule between NTR Statue to Park Hotel Junction on weekends and public holidays, on a trial basis. “We began the trial run on Beach Road after eliciting opinions from the citizens. Several other roads in the city have problems of traffic congestion and parking. If the Beach Road project is a runaway success, we will replicate plans on other key roads too,” Police Commissioner Mahesh Chandra Laddha said. However, he made it clear that all the stakeholders would be involved in the planning stage. It is learnt that roads in Dabagardens, Jagadamba Jaunction and Main Road are being considered for one-way traffic plan. Growth in vehicle count Traffic congestion has emerged as a major problem in the city and the police authorities attribute it to the rapid increase in the number of vehicles. “From around 30,000 vehicles on the city roads in 1970s, the count has gone up to about 10 lakh now. But, the commensurate improvement in the road infrastructure is yet to be materialised,” Mr. Laddha pointed out. Reiterating the same, ACP (Traffic) K. Prabhakar said though the official limit for auto-rickshaws on the city roads was around 18,000, the number of three-wheelers plying had crossed the 50,000 mark. ‘Immediate solution’ Though the one-way traffic plan on Beach Road has not gone down well with a section of citizens living in the colonies nearby and they are demanding that alternative solutions such as creation of more parking space and widening of roads be actively pursued, the police officials feel that converting some city roads to one-way appears to be an immediate solution to both traffic congestion and parking. “Improving infrastructure is a long-term prospect as it requires funding and a multi-department approach. Road widening and building flyovers are not our area of work. We have proposed a few solutions such as ROBs, flyovers, underpass and creation of parking and hawker zones, but they have to be undertaken by the civic bodies. We are working on immediate solutions by modifying the traffic rules in some areas,” Mr. Laddha said. Asked about the inconvenience to citizens, he said, “We understand that people may have to take a detour or walk about 200 metre to 500 metre more to reach their destinations. But, this appears to be a viable solution as of now. We need the cooperation of citizens to implement the rules.” Parking norms Police officials also blame the non-compliance by business establishments with the parking lot norms for the traffic snarls. “As per the MAUD norms, all malls should allocate 60% of their area as parking place, while the same for commercial complex and apartments are 35% and 20% respectively. But, the total compliance to the norms is hardly seen. As a result, the city roads are occupied by parked vehicles. If one side of the road is converted to parking zone, leaving the other for passage of vehicle (one-way), then the parking woes at Dabagardens and Jagadamba Junction can be eased,” Mr. Prabhakar said.

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