Facing hardships to reach Bibi ka Maqbara; Panchakki

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The absence of proper direction boards at the centrepoints is pushing the state transport and private outstation excursion buses to face hardship and inconvenience after losing their way to reach the famous heritage monuments like Panchakki and Bibi ka Maqbara.

The highly recommended road leading to the above monuments passes through Cantonment Area, University Area and Begumpura. The second recommended road starts from Mill Corner and passes through Milind School, University Area and Begumpura. Passing of heavy vehicles from Mehmood Gate has been banned and passing through Makai Gate is not an easy task. The lone preferred route is through Barapulla Gate.

It has been found that the bus drivers following google maps on their smartphones after fetching the wrong way by mistake reaches the congested pockets of the old city and lands into trouble. On Tuesday afternoon, one Gujarat state transport bus was on a school trip with students onboard lost its way and reached Town Hall. They had come from Bhadkal Gate. It got stucked beneath the flyover in Town Hall. The driver landed into confusion when the shopkeepers told him there is no proper way to reach Maqbara and take the route from Mill Corner. For sometime there was traffic congestion as the driver had to struggle to take the bus in reverse direction. After a hardship, he succeeded and the flow of traffic got smooth.

The expert opined, the new cement road from Town Hall to Makai Gate witnesses large number of encroachment of vehicles and hand carters. There is no space for the heavy vehicles to pass through or move in other direction. Besides, the construction of the road has been left incomplete near Makai Gate. Hence the bottleneck has been formed near the gate. The recommend route for buses is to go from Mill Corner, Barapulla Gate, Milind School and ahead. It is wide and free from encroachments (of any kind) and the same route has also been beautified with decorative plants and was used by G20 delegates while visiting Bibi ka Maqbara and other monuments in the circuit. Few weeks ago, two private luxury buses had lost their way and reached inside the University area and were struggling to find right way to reach Maqbara.

Proper direction boards needed!

The expert underlines the need of displaying direction boards (with bold letters) on different important roads or entry points so that the tourists onboard the buses do not suffer, the bus drivers do not face inconvenience and also it would help avoiding traffic congestions and could reach the above monuments safely.