Severe traffic jams in Shopian leave patients stranded
Shopian, Jun 9: Last week, patients were seen abandoning vehicles and walking to District Hospital Shopian as bumper-to-bumper traffic brought movement to a crawl on the main road leading to the facility.
Attendants helped patients to navigate the congestion with vehicles inching forward in a gridlock that forced many to proceed on foot. The narrow roads in the entire town with foot paths occupied by the shopkeepers results in frequent traffic snarls, causing immense hardships to patients and their attendants.
Mitha Gatoo, a social activist from the area, said that road dividers could have minimized the problem to some extent by streamlining traffic and preventing haphazard vehicle movement. “Without proper traffic management, vehicles from both directions end up choking the road, leaving no space even for ambulances. Constructing dividers will help ensuring seamless movement of traffic,” he said.
He said that the civil society of the area approached the authorities umpteen times, but to no avail. “We submitted memorandums to every senior official, who visited the district over the last few years, demanding them to take certain measures including road widening and construction of dividers to do away with the pesky traffic jams,”Gatoo said.
“But our repeated pleas have gone unheard, and no concrete action has been taken so far and the gridlocks continue to put lives of patients on the line, particularly of those who need emergency medical attention,” he said.
The movement of trucks and other heavy vehicles through the town during daytime hours further worsens the traffic situation. According to residents, Four Way Chowk is the only location in the entire town where the authorities have installed cones.
The residents blamed both the traffic authorities and Municipal Council Shopian for allowing the mess. “We understand that road widening is a crucial decision, which involves financial implications and rests with senior authorities, but the traffic still could have been managed”, said a group of senior residents.
