Transport troubles in Shopian: Decongestion plan creates new challenges

Shopian, Dec 22: In the absence of intra-town transport, the residents and commuters of south Kashmir's Shopian district have to face immense hardships. The recent decision of the authorities to relocate the cab stands only added to their woes.

" We have to walk long distances now to get on cabs", said Bilal Ahmad , a commuter. The decision to shift cab stands was part of the district administration's traffic decongestion plan. However, in the absence of intra-town transport, the travellers are put to tremendous inconveniences.

" The Administration should have taken the stakeholders on board before relocating the cab stands”, said another commuter.

In March 2021 , the district administration decided to introduce 20 e-rickshaws as part of its decongestion process. The administration completed all the modalities in a high level meeting.

The idea was not only to ease the traffic congestion by moving the cab stands, responsible for creating traffic snarls, but also offering livelihood to youth via these e-rickshaws. The decision, however, was not implemented for almost two years.

Last year, a fleet of 6 -8 such rickshaws were launched by the administration amidst much fanfare with officials themselves even taking a ride of these vehicles at the inauguration ceremony. These rickshaws , however, soon vanished from the roads.

" We are clueless about these e-rickshaws. Following their inauguration, they completely disappeared from the streets", said Mitha Gatoo, a civil society member.

He said that people, particularly senior citizens and women, have to walk long distances without intra-town transport facilities.

Social activist Magray Mansoor told Greater Kashmir that relocating cab stands out of the town was a welcome move to ease persistent traffic jams.

"But the administration should have first considered how the people could reach these stands in the absence of local transport" , Magary said.

Deputy Commissioner Shopian, Shahid Saleem Dar told Greater Kashmir that e-rickshaws could not operate in the district in sub-zero temperatures.

“E-rickshaws, as per experts, are not a viable option of transport”, he said.