Traffic jams take toll on commuters in Srinagar

Srinagar: Massive traffic jams in vital routes of the summer capital took heavy toll on commuters on Monday.

Amid rains, traffic jams were witnessed in city centre areas including MA Road, Lal Chowk, Natipora, Sanat Nagar, Bypass and Rawalpora areas.

Commuters blamed slow traffic due to traffic diversions on vital intersections and non-functioning of the traffic lights.

“First the roads were narrowed on the pretext of Smart City projects. Now the intersections especially at MA Road have been closed and all the vehicles bound to Lal Chowk from Downtown have to move over a kilometre to cross TRC junction. This wastes the precious time of commuters and also leads to traffic jams,” said Abdul Hamid, a commuter.

“Traffic jams have now started to affect our lives. Our children reach their respective homes very late from schools due to traffic jams. There is a need to streamline the traffic system and operationalise smart traffic lights,” a group of commuters said. 

Commuters said essential services like ambulances also get stranded in traffic jams which can be detrimental for critical patients. They said that multiple drainage and other road work projects are also triggering traffic jams for hours.

 Senior officials from the Traffic Department have been claiming that they are addressing the issue of diversion, and soon the situation will be better. They claim that once the major development projects in the city centre are complete, that will also ease the traffic.