The city traffic police on Thursday blamed the civic authorities’ lack of planning for the contra-flow of traffic between D’Souza Circle on Richmond Road and Garuda Mall.
The city traffic police on Thursday blamed the civic authorities’ lack of planning for the contra-flow of traffic between D’Souza Circle on Richmond Road and Garuda Mall.
The police, however, sought to dispel apprehensions on the contra-flow (movement of vehicles in the reverse direction), saying there was nothing wrong in it.
A man, apparently confused over the contra-flow, was injured late on Wednesday, when he rode his bike on the left lane, and crashed head-on into a private bus moving on the right-hand lane, as mandated by the contra-flow.
A top police officer preferred to term the contra-flow as an example for ‘no plan leads to chaos.’
When asked about the confusion contra-flow caused to the motorists, additional commissioner of police (traffic) Praveen Sood said warning boards have been put up at 50 meters interval from Central Mall on Commissariate Road itself.
“We cannot do anything now as there was no planning when the road was laid. But one thing that keeps us a little relieved is the flow of traffic at the junction. From Commissariate Road, the traffic can move towards left towards Hosmat junction. From the junction all vehicles can move on the right along Magrath Road and take the right lane to D’Souza Circle. This, at least, makes the junction bottleneck-free,” Sood said.
The only traffic signal erected on the stretch was a pelican signal for pedestrians.
The officer said that contra-flow was only for 200 metre, compared to the longer one on Dhanvanthari Road from Krishna Floor Mills towards the Kempe Gowda bus stand.
“The road was made contra-flow three years ago after the traffic police tried their best to ensure smooth flow of traffic. The Dhanvanthari Road was rendered useless for nearly five years and was open to traffic only 1995. There are thousands of buses entering and exiting from the bus station. Where can we divert this huge volume of buses,” he asked, expressing helplessness over the situation in Majestic.
Sood claimed that the contra-flow in Central Business District decongested the Commissariate Road junction. “The vehicular movement is now distributed, as three roads there have been opened only for one-way traffic.”
Lamenting the brickbats the traffic police have been receiving regularly over the state of traffic on the roads, the officer said his department had put the Richmond Circle flyover to optimum utilization with much difficulty.
“Nobody appreciates this. We are also road users, and we do not construct roads. We make the traffic flow as smooth as possible on roads constructed by the civic authorities,” he added.
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