The 200-feet Sardar Patel Ring Road (SP Ring Road), an arterial road of Ahmedabad interlinking areas like Shilaj, Bopal, Shela and Ghuma, is crippled daily at the Shilaj Crossroads.
This hub, which sees the culmination of roads like the Hebatpur Overbridge, Shilaj, the flyover approaching from Bopal, Sindhu Bhavan Road (SBR), and Rajpath, is the centre of the chaos, causing extensive tailbacks stretching 1 to 2 kilometres.
Commuters say it takes 20-40 painstaking minutes to travel a mere 200 to 400 metres near the Shilaj circle.
Despite several complaints to the police and administration through different channels, the problem long remains unattended.
“One of the main reasons is heavy vehicles that move at snail’s pace. This slows down other vehicles too that are moving from different directions like the Hebatpur Overbridge and from SBR at the SP Ring Road towards Shilaj,” said Uddayan Mitra, a resident of Shilaj.
“We have to often call the police helpline number (100) to seek help in clearing the traffic. Unless they come, there isn’t any way out but to wait in the car,” he added, who is a daily sufferer.
Shraman Tiwari of Shela said, “Auto-rickshaw walas park their vehicles illegally on Shilaj Crossroad and other junctions on SP Ring Road, including SBR junction near Taj Skyline Hotel, which is one reason for the daily jam-like situation.”
Traffic JCP (Ahmedabad), NN Chaudhary said, “There is an issue of jurisdiction in this stretch (Shilaj Crossroad) as it falls under SP Rural’s jurisdiction. However, I will talk to them to look into the issue.”
He said there were ongoing efforts to streamline control, “We have already requested the government to hand over the area to us, so that we can manage it better.” His jurisdiction currently ends at SBR junction.
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