Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 13: “Embrace the chaotic traffic on the roads” seems to be the new slogan of the Traffic Police for the people of winter capital of the State as vehicular traffic on all the roads and main by-lanes of the Jammu city and its outskirts has gone haywire and each and every wing of the Government associated with checking this menace has virtually surrendered to the prevailing situation.
This became explicitly clear on the festival of ‘Bhai Dooj’ today when travelling distance on foot was far less time consuming than reaching the destination in a vehicle. There was hardly any road and main by-lane of Jammu which was not completely chocked right from early morning till late in the evening.
On the other side, the visibility of cops in blue, whose primary job is to control the vehicular movement to ensure smooth journey of the commuters, was very negligible. Even those who were physically present in some areas were watching the chaotic traffic as mute spectator instead of regulating the same.
Due to inaction on their part, there was free for all situation on the roads and main by-lanes as vehicle operators were violating the traffic rules and regulations at their sweet will and without any fear of law. Even the cops in Khaki, who too have a role to play in traffic management particularly on the season of festivals, as per the instructions from the top brass of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, were not ready to regulate the vehicular movement.
The worst ever situation was witnessed in Northern parts of the Jammu comprising areas of Jewel Chowk, Dogra Chowk, Vivekananda Chowk, Bakshi Nagar, Talab Tillo, Canal Head, Bhagwati Nagar, Akhnoor Road, Kamla Palace Road, Patta Bohri, Janipur, Ambphalla, New Plots, Sarwal, Subash Nagar, Toph Sherkhania, Panjtirthi, Kachi Chawani and Parade.
Though traffic chaos in Southern parts of Jammu was not that worst but disorder was also witnessed in Gandhi Nagar, Nanak Nagar, Satwari Chowk, Last Morh and Asia Crossing as every vehicle was being driven as if complete lawlessness was prevailing. Even the 4th Bridge on River Tawi, which was constructed to ease out traffic in Northern parts of Jammu city could not cater to the situation in the absence of any regulatory authority.
The another factor responsible for failure of the 4th Bridge in easing traffic congestion is the failure of the authorities concerned to ensure that its connectivity from Canal Head side is widened enough to accommodate huge number of vehicles. Ever since construction of this bridge, none from the Roads and Buildings Department or other concerned agencies bothered to ponder upon this vital aspect.
Moreover, the untimely digging of Sarwal road for laying of sewerage pipes is adding to the traffic chaos as entire vehicular traffic is diverted to the Ambphalla-Janipur road in the absence of alternate connectivity through Sarwal.
The digging of Sarwal road is the testimony of lack of planning on the part of project executing agency as they should have considered increase in volume of traffic on opening of Durbar at Jammu before taking decision on closing of this vital road.
The intensity of the chaotic situation can be gauged from the fact that even main by-lanes connecting Janipur road with Patoli-Paloura and Akhnoor roads remained completely chocked for several hours during the day today.
The prevailing situation has virtually put a question mark on the very existence of the Traffic Police and has exposed that Government doesn’t have any traffic management planning and is also lacking vision to prevent the situation from turning more terrible in near future as addition of vehicles to the already burgeoning population is a regular and uncontrolled phenomenon.
What to talk of regulating traffic, the cops in blue are also not paying any attention towards wrong parking of vehicles, which is also one of the major reason behind chaos on the roads. Moreover, abrupt stopping of passenger vehicles is no issue for the Traffic Police because the operators of such vehicles are more dearer to them than anything else because of the obvious reasons.
Lack of planning can be further gauged from the fact that Government is boasting of constructing multi-tier parking places at Panjtirthi and General Bus Stand but it is not mooting such parking places for other parts of Jammu as if these two parking slots would be suffice to check the wrong parking menace in whole of Jammu city and its outskirts.
Notwithstanding the oft-repeated concerns in official statements over easing out traffic problems in Jammu city, the Government has yet not carried out any serious exercise to provide relief to the people from the frequent traffic jams and there are apprehensions that terrible situation would emerge in near future keeping in view addition of huge number of vehicles in the already burgeoning population every year.
“The situation demands Government to act promptly and rope in experts in the field of traffic management so that their services and expertise could be utilized and arteries of the winter capital are prevented from getting blocked further”, sources said.
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