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| More flyovers needed to end traffic congestion | | | NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
Jammu, Jan 18: The Jammu city roads can no longer sustain the level of vehicular traffic. The result is traffic jams, traffic chaos. If one drives between Nanak Nagar Gurdwara to Bahu Plaza,or between New Plots to Roop Nagar, or from Jewel Chowk to Shaheedi Chowk, or from Jewel Chowk to Bhori,or between Bikram Chowk to New Plots or from Mainstop, Gandhi Nagar, to the Green belt park one becomes convinced that the city has become almost a parking zone for the two and four wheelers. It is traffic chaos on the Residency road because cars, three and two-wheelers stand parked on 50 per cent road stretch. The traffic situation in Raghunath Bazaar has slightly eased after the road stretch has been prohibited for car parking. But the concerned authorities have yet to devise ways and means for easing traffic congestion on the Apsara road stretch.
40 to 50-seater buses stand parked on the sides of the B.C.Road leaving hardly any space for smooth flow of traffic. A five-minute drive on a road stretch under normal circumstances takes now 15 to 20 minutes. The drivers spit on the sign boards calling upon people to conserve oil and energy, What had added to the woes of commuters and the pedestrians is the risk they face from rash driving of matador drivers. One is heard calling these flying matadors as helicopters on the roads. In Delhi the blueline buses have earned the distinction of being messengers of death. But nobody dares call names as far as the matador drivers are concerned. Whether one is driving a car or a two-wheeler one is in a hurry, haste and in a deep hurry. One gets frightened over the rash driving being allowed on the narrow roads. On some road stretches there are zebra crossings for enabling pedestrians to cross the road. But those who drive matadors, buses, cars, two-wheelers hardly show respect for these zebra crossings.
In several areas car owners park their cars outside their residences because they do not have parking spaces within the premises of their houses. Even if they have those have been converted into lawns or have been used for building annexes which they have given on rent. Why should not they utilise the open spaces for such money minting activity when they have no restriction in parking their cars on the roads.If there are some roads wide enough to stand the level of vehicular traffic they have been squeezed by the shopkeepers who display their goods on the edges of the road. The city of Jammu is catching up with mall mania. Number of malls and fast food stalls has come up but majority of them have no parking spaces. Before giving permission to businessmen for opening malls and fast food eateries the Government should have made it mandatory for them to earmark spacious space for parking zone. It has not been there with the result one finds scores of small vehicles basking to the discomfiture to the people.
In fact the road and rotary laying exercise in the city of Jammu has been devoid of engineering skill. Mark the rotaries and the confluence of road arteries at Jewel Chowk, Rehari Chungi ,Bakshi Nagar crossing, Janipur, the entire Gandhi Nagar and Shastri Nagar and the interior city. A drive needs either the third eye or the third sense. One can see the traffic mess at the Jewel and Bikram Chowk area.A bigger mess awaits various crossings between the canal head and Bhori and between the canal head and the Satwari chowk. About two months have passed still the culvert in the centre of Jewel-Bhori road has not been repaired. The diversion of traffic via Manorma Vihar has aggravated traffic chaos. The entire blame for traffic congestion should not be laid on the shoulders of the traffic police. The city needs more flyovers and widening of the roads on a massive scale. If it is not done those who walk on foot will move faster than the cars within next five years as every year adds 10,000 vehicles on the roads.
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