Indeed, in past four decades, Jammu city has drastically changed its skin. Older folks will tell you fascinating stories of what the city of Jammu was half a century ago. It was very apt for the city to earn the sobriquet of the City of Temples. It had unique cultural aura around it. The old city of those days was the hub of trade, culture, fashion, indigenous cuisine and lively and energizing culture. Humming humanity thronged its narrow streets and small groups of intellectuals, artists and social activists had their respective rendezvous where they met and interacted with one another. Two varieties of merchandise made these streets vibrant, viz. innumerable shops of milk and milk products, and piles of fresh flowers which the temple going men and women picked up to shower on the deities in the temples.
No motor vehicle plied within the premises of the old city. The present parade ground, now partly occupied by the Police Headquarter and partly by the Sports Stadium, actually served as the bus stand. The number of old type buses that parked in the Parade Ground was small to count on fingertips. A couple of buses came from Srinagar, one or two from Poonch and Bhaderwah, and a few from Pathankot. Nobody then complained of congestion and over-crowding, of pollution and of noise and dust.
Jammu has grown rapidly in all respects. It has physically burgeoned across the Tawi along enormous area in the foothills of Shivalik hills extending in the north from Bari Brahmana to the Mahamaya Forests right up to Nagrota. In view of rapid expansion, the bus stand of Jammu, where vehicular traffic multiplied by overwhelming proportions, had to shift to present site along the BC Road. Because of ever-increasing vehicular traffic owing to hundred-fold increase in commercial activities and human mobility, this bus stand became dismally inadequate and crowded. Bus and taxi service for many parts of Northern India has increased several folds. The number of tourists and especially pilgrim tourists is on rapid rise. With private transporters floating mini bus service in the city and its municipal limits, all have combined to make the existing bus stand on B.C Road almost a sham. For many years, the government had been mulling the idea of shifting the bus stand to outskirts of the city. Perhaps elements with stakes in the present site of the bus stand would not like to lose their big income. Finally, as per reports, the present site of the bus stand on the B C Road has been cleared for modernization and adding of more space. The proposed prestigious and modern bus stand project will come up at a cost of Rs. 201 crore. It will provide better facilities besides adding Multilevel Car Parking for more than 1300 cars to decongest the surrounding areas. It will also provide facilities like Food Courts, Shopping Malls, open restaurants etc for locals as well as tourists. In terms of location, this bus stand will be in the heart of the city connected to all parts of the State as well as the neighbouring States. Though the government will insist on timely completion of the project, nevertheless, it will be nothing short of a miracle if the time limit is met. The engineers have already initiated preliminary work on the project.
Now that the Government has taken a final decision about the development of the bus stand, and work will begin soon, we would like to impress on traffic authorities to streamline the city transport in a manner that commuters have more facilities and comfort in riding the buses. In the first place, the traffic department should order replacement of existing small size mini buses with more commodious and comfortable low floor modern buses after taking city transport into its hands leaving only suburban routes for the mini bus operators. The second immediate requirement is that of modernizing the Jammu Railway Station to make it look tidier and cleaner and utility oriented. Though that is the job of the Northern Railways, yet it is closely connected with the making of a new bus stand in Jammu.
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