Violations galore, traffic crawls on College Road

NASHIK: A drive from Bhonsala Military college circle to Canada corner along the arterial College Road is a nightmare for a motorist even during afternoon or evening hours. It takes around half-an-hour and sometimes even more to cross the barely 1-km stretch — thanks to perennial traffic snarls at various junctions caused by poor parking sense and two-wheelers zooming down the wrong side of the road.
Afternoons and evening hours are the worst time to drive down the road and pedestrians are often caught struggling to cross it at spots like the junction at Canada corner moving towards Boys Town school circle, BYK College junction and Bhonsala military circle.
On one hand, the road doesn't have the desired width for a streamlined flow of traffic. Add to it haphazardly parked vehicles along the roads blocking traffic, rash driving by youngsters and accelerating along the wrong side of the stretch. With no dedicated parking space, people often leave their vehicles wherever they feel like.
"I try not to take the road because of the huge traffic pressure. I rather prefer commuting on Gangapur road or take the connecting roads. This takes the travel longer," said Shubham Verule, a student.
Besides rash driving, another concern is inadequate parking space. This compels people to park vehicles at faraway places. "There is a constant fear that the vehicle might be lifted by the traffic police," said Vaishali Avhad, a regular on the road.
Earlier, one could pass the entire stretch in less than 10 minutes. But traffic congestions at every crossing causes a delay of nearly half-an-hour during peak hours. "Many a times I have stayed stuck at a particular junction for over 10 minutes. Very often, commuters have to get down from the vehicle and try to re-regularise traffic flow, said Dhanashree Mahajan, a medical student.
Sachin Javale, who is graduating from a city college and has to take the road every day, said, "Parking vehicles on roads near food joints has become a trend and nobody seems to bother."
Seema Bhargav, a teacher, said, "Traffic is blocked frequently in front of a multiplex and a supermarket, which is usually crowded especially during weekends. I have also seen people driving four wheelers on the wrong side. This is dangerous."
The long divider along the road doesn't seem to be of much help either. "Motorists often tend to use the wrong side, paralysing traffic at the busy corners," said Leesha Arora, an optometrist.
Suresh More, who works with a private firm on College Road, said errant autorickshaw drivers stop their vehicles in the middle of the road to pick up passengers. "There is no provision for pedestrians to cross the road as these autorickshaws just pop up from almost nowhere at any point of the road," he said.
M Bagwan, the police inspector at the city traffic department, said about 50 cases of violation were reported everyday. "These cases include rash driving and we are conducting a drive on College Road every day, motorists taking the wrong side and illegal parking. The civic body has not dedicated any parking space. The NMC should have checked for parking space provisions while giving permission to the hotels and commercial shops," he added.
Repeated calls and texts to town planning engineer Sanjay Ghuge for the civic body's views on the menace remained unanswered.