BHOPAL: Arch Bridge and Boulevard Street, the two ambitious projects of Smart City Bhopal, have failed to serve their purpose. The two projects, developed by Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (BSCDCL), at cost of over 30 crore each, were inaugurated recently by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The vehicular congestion around the Arch Bridge has forced the traffic police to approach Smart City engineers to make required changes around the accident-prone entry to the Bridge. The city architects too feel that concerned officials failed to do their homework before chalking out the proposal of Arch Bridge and Boulevard Street. Rani Kamlapati Arch Bridge was inaugurated in the last week of December and the Boulevard Street earlier this month. The arch bridge has failed to clear the traffic chaos around. The vehicles coming from the Arch-Bridge and those from Rani Kamlapati Mahal route converge at the entry point of the bridge, leading to vehicular congestion around.
The road often remains closed for commuters heading towards the bridge from the Polytechnic Square and only the vehicles coming from the side of Ginnori are allowed to ply on the bridge. Traffic police have put up barricades on the road for motorists commuting from the side of Polytechnic Square. The traffic department has urged Smart City to introduce required changes to relieve the bridge's entry of vehicular chaos.
The very purpose of Boulevard Street was to provide a shorter route to commuters from Platinum Plaza to Jawahar Chowk, and to reduce the traffic burden on either side of the area. However, the frequency of vehicles on the Rs 30 crore Boulevard Street is between 6 and 8 per minute. On the other hand, the adjacent roads have a frequency of over 35 vehicles in a minute. The commuters around are not using Boulevard Street thus defeating the very.
Architect Abdul Majeed says the traffic where the Boulevard Street has been constructed was never too high and there was hardly any need for a parallel road. The officials should have used the money elsewhere, said the architect. Also on Boulevard Street trees should have been planted for green cover but they instead the officials opted for Palm trees, he added.
Talks on with Smart City: ASP traffic
ASP(Traffic)Sandeep Dikshit said the department has sought suggestions from Smart City to manage traffic around the bridge. The talks with the officials are on to introduce required changes, he added. Chief executive officer (CEO) Smart City Aditya Singh said that they had had a meeting with the traffic department and were mulling changes, such as turning it one-sided and others.
Also Read: Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal Smart City ranked 1st in Smart City mission of GoI
source https://www.freepressjournal.in/bhopal/bhopal-arch-bridge-boulevard-street-fall-short-of-expectations
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