Hubballi: Gabbur Cross, a key traffic junction leading to the bustling city of Hubballi, has become a quite a nightmare with its daily pain points of congestion and chaos.Negotiating Gabbur Cross is no less challenging than evading the vice-like grip of the legendary ‘Gabbar Singh’ in the 1975 Bollywood blockbuster Sholay, or so one thought. The area, which serves as a gateway to Bengaluru, Haveri, and Davangere, is plagued by unauthorised bus and autorickshaw stops and an overwhelming influx of vehicles, leading to long hours of traffic snarls. With buses and autorickshaws picking up and dropping off passengers at random, traffic flow gets disrupted, apart from raising obvious risks to life and limb. Residents have aired their frustration time and again, urging the authorities to take immediate action. They have also appealed to the police and municipal authorities to implement effective traffic management through creation of designated bus bays and deployment of enough traffic personnel to regulate the flow of vehicles. Yet, there has been no perceptible change thus far.The ongoing road work for widening the national highway and the construction of a flyover have transformed the entire area into a dust bowl. Road closures and diversions often force pedestrians to cross the national highway at undesignated places at immense risk, said Mohan Asundi, a former corporator. Besides, farmers who need to criss-cross the area on their bullock carts are finding the commute increasingly more challenging. He added that the authorities concerned, mainly the National Highways Authority of India, the state transport department, and the local civic body ought to develop a comprehensive plan to address this mess. C R Raveesh, the deputy commissioner of police (crime and traffic), said a meeting will be convened within a week with officials from all the departments concerned, the civic body, and members of construction companies to streamline traffic movement.
