Vijayawada Comes To A Standstill For Three Hours

Vijayawada: The city came to a standstill and vehicular traffic came to a screeching halt for about three hours on Saturday for Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's visit.

The former BJP leader was on his first visit to the city after assuming the high office. Consequently, the city police diverted traffic on several important thoroughfares for the VIP visit leaving the common man stranded on the roads. The problem was compounded by the diversion to smaller arterial roads which could not handle the huge volume of traffic. Bandar-Krishnalanka road was jam-packed with vehicular and pedestrian traffic on the occasion.

Being morning rush hours, school students and office-goers were the worst hit due to diversion of traffic. Many blamed the lack of planning by the authorities for a VIP visit as the cause of the mayhem . The city traffic police initated traffic diversions from Friday night itself. However, they failed to provide suitable alternate routes for the traffic. Traffic restrictions were imposed on the 23 kilometre-long Gannavaram-Velagapudi road from 9 am to 11 am.

Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam vehicles were diverted via Sattupalli. Visakhapatnam-Chennai traffic was diverted via Hanuman Junction and Gudiwada in view of the VIP visit.