School areas yet to be ‘safe traffic zones’ in Visakhapatnam

Children cross the roads amid traffic chaos; parents complain of ‘inadequate restrictions’

The stretch of National Highway-16 passing through the Madhurawada Junction (Chandramapalem) tests the patience of motorists, traffic personnel and the parents of the children who attend the schools nearby. The traffic perssonel manning this stretch describe schooltime both in the morning and afternoon as peak hours for a reason.

As the clock ticks 8 in the morning, schoolchildren, accompanied by their guardians, seek to cross the road in groups even as two-wheelers and four-wheelers wait for the green signal. Meanwhile, some impatient parents try to sneak through the vehicles passing through the junction, making it difficult for the traffic personnel.

“Everyone is in a hurry. The peak hours means chaos. This is an accident-prone area. We have seen many people dying after being hit by lorries while crossing the road. A traffic constable, some days two, help us cross the road. Still, I am scared,” says Mohan Rao, a resident of Madhurawada, who drops his daughter daily at a school nearby the junction.

Krishnaveni, another parent, says that traffic personnel started manning the junction just a few months ago.

“We feel a bit relaxed now as traffic personnel have been deployed at the junction. Yet, we cannot call it a safe zone, especially for schoolchildren . A foot-over-bridge would have made it easy for everybody. But, the long-pending demnand is yet to be fulfilled,” she points out.

Like Madhurawada Junction, many areas in the city are facing similar problems. Many parents point fingers at lack of adequate restrictions when it comes to managing traffic in the crowded areas dotted with school and colleges. They allege that many school zones even lack the basic zebra crossing.

Similar is the case of Asilmetta. With the Dwaraka Bus Terminal located nearby, RTC buses keep plying at a good frequency. But, traffic congestion has become the order of the day during the school hours. Citizens say that the situation appears to be a bit under control with students going to Intermediate colleges nearby follow staggerred times but it is a chaos as the institutions close for the day at the same time.