Unending traffic jams take toll on Srinagarites

Srinagar, Oct 10: Amid persistent traffic gridlocks in Srinagar city, the Traffic Police Srinagar is grappling with a shortfall of manpower to cater to the traffic beats, posing a major challenge for the traffic police to ensure smooth flow of traffic on the city roads.

Massive gridlocks are witnessed at several junctions, particularly during morning and afternoon hours, giving commuters a tough time reaching their destinations.

The dearth of manpower results in mounting pressure on the available personnel, which ultimately impacts the traffic regulation across the city.

Amid the prevailing manpower shortfall, the slow movement of traffic has become the norm at several key junctions.

The commuters coming to the city from different districts complain that the unmanned traffic signals turn terrifying as these junctions witness massive gridlock.

“A 15-minute or 2-minute journey takes more than 50 minutes,” the commuters said.

An official said the traffic police (city) was facing a shortfall of manpower, which makes it a challenging job for the available traffic cops to man the traffic beats.

“We have around 170 traffic beats out of which we cater to only 117 locations,s and 53 beats remain unmanned,” Senior Superintendent of Traffic Police (city) Ajaz Ahmad Bhat told Greater Kashmir.

“We don’t witness total traffic jams, but the movement of vehicles remains slow. The movement remains slow at some particular junctions,” he said.

He said the traffic movement gets slow at various spots as the passenger vehicles do not stop at any designated point, halting the whole traffic movement.

“Public behavior is also a factor in it. Passengers force the driver to stop at any spot on the road which adds to the chaos. The vehicles do not stop at any designated bus bay,” SSP Traffic said.

Besides the shortfall of traffic cops, defunct traffic lights at various spots add to the misery of the commuters who remain stranded at various spots due to traffic gridlock.

Out of 66 junctions across Srinagar city, traffic lights are operational only at 52 junctions, leading to gridlock at left out spots.

“We are yet to make traffic lights operational at 14 spots. Some traffic lights were old models and they are being repaired as well,” SSP traffic said.

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

“Once ITMS will be introduced, we will see a positive change in traffic regulation,” he said.

About the wrong route taken by vehicles plying from the Natipora crossing to Barzulla, SSP traffic said the issue has been taken up with the concerned authorities, and the issue will be resolved very soon.

“The issue is already under our consideration,” he said.