To make the pilgrims’ visit to pushkar bathing ghats safe during the Krishna Pushkaralu to be held in August, Nalgonda Superintendent of Police, Vikram Jeet Duggal, has come up with a scientific approach to control and streamline the vehicular flow.
The State government has identified 33 pushkar ghats in Chandampet, P.A. Pally, Peddavoora, Damarcherla, Nereducherla, Mattampally and Mellacheruvu mandals in the district. Recalling the traffic chaos that was witnessed due to unexpected pilgrim rush during the Godavari Pushkaralu, Mr. Duggal said according to their plan, almost all the roads leading to the pushkar ghats would be made one way so that it’s easy to regulate traffic flow and if there are two-way roads, they would be separated by medians. To ensure this, the Panchayat Raj and R&B Departments have agreed to lay some additional roads.
Pilgrims would take Hyderabad-Vijayawada, Narketpally-Addanki and Hyderabad-Nagarjunasagar roads to reach the pushkar ghats from the State capital. The police are also expecting heavy influx of pilgrims from Warangal, Khammam, Chhattisgarh and other northern parts of the country who would take Khammam-Suryapet and Khammam-Kodad roads. The Police Department has broadly estimated the number of pilgrims visiting the pushkar ghats and would lay the roads accordingly.
At least five lakh pilgrims are expected to take part in the Pushkaralu at various places, especially Nagarjunasagar and Mattampally pushkar ghats. Mr. Duggal said that a few km before the pushkar ghats, ‘holding points’ would be created to hold the vehicles for an hour or so if there was traffic jam near the pushkar ghats. This is addition to the parking spaces to be created near the bathing ghats.
The SP said they would also divert some vehicles to other bathing ghats that relatively receive less pilgrims. The police have asked the concerned departments to create large traffic islands at all the junctions apart from erecting sign boards everywhere.
Mr. Duggal has also suggested constructing a few small flyovers and under-passes, which could be useful later as well, but officials told him that it was not financially viable.
The SP said the Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and Director General of Police Anurag Sharma, who conducted an aerial survey along the Krishna River recently, were very particular on having effective traffic management. He further said that they also interacted with the police and other officials, who served during the Godavari Pushkaralu, to closely understand the issues before preparing their plan.
According to primary estimation, Devarakonda Divisional Engineer, R&B, Khajan Goud said the expenditure on laying roads was put at Rs. 460 crore, which is set to go up by Rs. 100 crore with the additional roads proposed by the Police Department. The Panchayat Raj Department put their spending on laying roads at Rs. 100 crore, but that might go up further. The police would rope in volunteers to regulate the traffic.
Traffic will be diverted to bathing ghats that relatively have less pilgrim rush, says Nalgonda SP
