Chaos reduced,overspeeding the new problem on JM Road

Under the new system,the stretch of road between S G Barve Chowk to Natraj Chowk on J M Road was converted to one-way even as vehicles were allowed to take a right turn from the S G Barve chowk to Modern college. Similarly,the stretch between the Good Luck chowk to Dnyaneshwar Paduka chowk on FC Road was converted to one-way at the same time. Vehicles were not allowed to take a right turn from Sant Tukaram Maharaj Paduka chowk on FC Road to GholeRoad. The experiment was launched on August 21 last year and though it was followed by protests from local residents and shop owners,most today are now comfortable with the one-ways. “Even though initially people had reservations about these two roads getting converted into one-ways,now there appears to be no issue.

The one-ways are running smoothly and have benefitted the traffic. The only thing is that trees coming in the way of traffic should be shifted to some other place,” Balasaheb Bodke,local corporator,told The Indian Express .

A resident of Shivajinagar gaonthan Shekhar Bahirat said,“The one-ways have become useful for the easy flow of traffic. But at the same time,it has made vehicles move at a much faster speed than earlier,despite speed breakers on the road. Hence,there should be a proper mechanism to keep an eye on the speed of vehicles,so that peoples’ lives are not at risk.”

Another resident of J M Road Pradeep Ghatge said that the one-ways were made without holding any talks with the local residents,who are now suffering mainly in terms of increased distance to certain places. “Increased speed of vehicles is also a critical factor. But overall,the situation is not very bad,” he admitted.

Fergusson College student Gaurav Singh said,“The one-way has brought some discipline on F C Road. Earlier,the two-way had made things bad for the movement of traffic,with vehicles coming from all sides.”

For the traffic branch,however,the real problem is lack of facilities for pedestrians. “I do not think there is any issue about the speeding vehicles on J M Road,as there are signals,traffic police and roadblocks at appropriate places. The real problem is that there is a lack of road crossing facilities on both these one-ways. Once it is done,that one-way will become perfect,” Manoj Patil,DCP (traffic) said.