No end to traffic jams in Srinagar

Srinagar, Oct 26: There seems to be no end to the traffic mess in Srinagar city as the commuters continue to complain of massive gridlock during peak hours, particularly during evening hours.

The commuters, including the students and government employees, complained that they get stuck at most of locations while returning home.

The Maulana Azad Road-Jehangir Chowk stretch has become prone to traffic jams due to the massive rush of vehicles. “At MA Road junction, traffic is mostly manned manually, and the traffic lights are put off.  What is the purpose of installing traffic lights if traffic is managed manually most of the time?” asked Abdul Hamid, a commuter.

"Already exhausted during the day, the gridlock at certain locations tests our patience," complained Muhammad Aslam a commuter.

"Surprisingly, at most of these junctions, we do not see any traffic cop present," he said.

As already reported by this newspaper, the Traffic Police Srinagar is grappling with a shortfall of manpower to cater to the traffic beats.

Due to the shortfall, it becomes hectic for traffic police to ensure the smooth flow of traffic at various locations on the city roads.

As per the official figures, Srinagar city has 170 traffic beats out of which traffic police Srinagar is able to cater to only 117 locations, while 53 beats remain unmanned.

In view of this, certain locations in the old city as well as in uptown Srinagar witness massive traffic gridlock during evening hours.

The worst hit area is the stretch from Batamaloo to Tengpora and Sanat Nagar to Rawalpora, besides other areas as well.

"We get stuck at these locations for almost 10 to 15 minutes every day, and there is no improvement in the traffic management," another commuter told Greater Kashmir.

“The stretch from Sanat Nagar towards Rawalpora is the worst hit. Gridlock has become the order of the day on this road," he said.

However, the traffic police officials attribute the gridlock to wrong parking and undesignated bus stops made by bus drivers and passengers out of their convenience.

"We don't have designated bus stops due to which the buses or mini buses, besides other passenger vehicles, make bus stops at any place to drop the passengers, which blocks the whole traffic," the police official said.

The official said that Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) cameras will be made operational by mid-November, which will ease the regulation of traffic.

“We will see a positive change in traffic regulation in the coming days,” he said.