Around 11,000 vehicles an hour, or more than 180 every minute, pass through My Home Avatar Junction from the Nanakramguda side during the morning rush hours. A new vehicle underpass (VUP) that opened to traffic on Thursday (September 17), is expected to take a sizeable chunk of vehicles out of this stream and cut wait time at one of the busy merging points leading towards the Financial District.

“Between 8.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m., roughly 33,000 vehicles pass through My Home Avatar Junction from Nanakramguda. The numbers during the evening peak would also be similar,” said K. Chandrasheker Reddy, ACP (Traffic), Madhapur.

The junction sees traffic from Manikonda, Puppalaguda, Khajaguda and the IT corridor converge as commuters travel towards Kokapet, Narsingi and the Financial District.

Mr. Reddy said that during peak hours (between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., and 4.30 p.m. and 7 p.m.), around 25% to 30% of the vehicles moving in the direction take a U-turn. This underpass is expected to cut this traffic. The facility is expected to benefit commuters travelling from Manikonda, Puppalaguda and Khajaguda towards Kokapet, Narsingi and the Financial District. Until now, these vehicles had to wait at the junction along with through-traffic, contributing to queues and slowing the overall movement. “Normally, it takes about five to six minutes for a commuter to cross the stretch, but during peak hours it doubles. Those taking the U-turn could have a waiting period of around eight minutes. The VUP will take that movement away from the junction,” Mr. Reddy said.

“We are planning to free the junction and make it waiting-free with some more U-turn arrangements. It will take some time,” the ACP said.