Gondal Chowkdi to be decongested

Rajkot: Relief is in sight for thousands of daily commuters who get stuck for long hours while going towards Shapar Veraval industrial area from the city. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started work on debottlenecking the area that includes widening the service road on both sides of the highway and reducing the size of Gondal Road Chowkdi circle from the present 25 feet to just 6 feet.
The junction, which is the main entry, exit and bypass point for Rajkot, was a huge bottleneck for traffic movement due to mindless design. The city police were finding it very difficult to manage traffic here as vehicles coming from the 150ft Ring Road and heavy vehicles coming from the Ahmedabad highway converge at this point. Adding to the trouble are large number of pick-up vehicles like autorickshaws, chhakdas and private buses that used to consume major portion of the motorable road.
Also, the industrial workers are forced to drive on the wrong side to reach their destination in Shapar-Veraval estate on Rajkot-Porbandar highway. "There are multiple problems at this chowkdi. Besides the sheer size of the circle, the road from the overbridge curves down. When vehicles try to take a roundabout from the circle, they get stuck up. The situation is worse during peak hours — between 8am and 10am — when nearly 3,500 vehicles pass through this junction from one direction alone," said K B Zala, assistant commissioner of police, traffic.
"We had written to NHAI earlier also in this regard and requested them to squeeze the size of this circle and widen and redesign the service road for smooth vehicle flow," he said.
Three weeks ago, city police commissioner Anoopam Singh Gehlot visited the spot and asked all concerned departments to coordinate and resolve the bottleneck. A meeting with officials of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC), the NHAI, the roads and building department was also held. "The service road will be four lane now and the circle will be reduced in size," he added.
The traffic police will also issue a notification to declare no-parking zone in 100m area on both sides of Gondal Chowkdi. "We expect the entire debottlenecking work to be completed in the next 20 days," Zala said.