Arteev Sharma
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 11 : The vehicle population in Jammu district is exploding and in the next couple of months would touch the staggering five-lakh mark-nearly fifteen times more than what it was two and half decades ago.
Without commensurate improvement in road conditions, parking lots coupled with a 15 times increase in the number of vehicles since 1982, Jammu region has also entered the 'traffic danger zone'. About 2000 to 2500 new vehicles are hitting the roads in the district every month.
While the Traffic Police are going ahead with introduction of one-ways on a number of roads, traffic continues to be chaotic in the City. "Short-term measures, like introduction of one-ways, construction of flyovers and grade separators, have failed to decongest the traffic," said experts, adding widening of all major roads and improving public transportation systems are the only options left to improve the situation.
Official sources said the vehicular population in Jammu district has tremendously increased from 28,995 in 1982 to about 4.5 lakhs by end of December 2009 registering a growth of nearly fifteen times. Motorised two-wheelers accounted for 65 per cent of the total number of vehicles in Jammu district till November 2009. Besides this, over eight lakh vehicles belonging to other states enter the state and they are not registered with Regional Transport Offices of the state.
Experts add that the road accident scenario in Jammu region is grim, as the number of vehicles has gone up phenomenally during the last two and half decades.
As per official figures, 5373 buses have been registered with Regional Transport Office (RTO) Jammu while the number of cars and street wagon reached upto 63770. More than 6500 mini-buses, 3450 taxis, 6465 Jeeps and Gypsy, 12454 three-wheelers, 216321 two wheelers, 8348 private tractors, 100 trailers, 21288 trucks and 4876 other vehicles have also been registered since 1982 till March 2008, added official figures.
Official reports further maintained that this number has gone up with 4, 34, 133 have been plying on different roads in Jammu. During the last ten years, vehicles population has registered tremendous increase from 45,961 in 2001 to 3, 44,132 in 2009. In 2002, the population of vehicles was 86,380 while this number was 1,38,365 in 2003, 2,08,235 in 2004, 2,95,790 in 2005, 3,17,920 in 2006 and 3,44,132 in 2007.
Official sources further maintained that 22061 vehicles were registered with Regional Transport Office (RTO) Jammu in 2008-09. "About 200 buses, 251Mini-buses, 6654 Cars, 195 Taxis, 625 three wheelers, 12516 two wheelers, 305 tractors, one trailer, 834 trucks, nine ambulances, LGV 60, seven MGV, 391 delivery vans and seven other vehicles hit the roads in Jammu district in 2008-09," they added.
However, number of vehicles further went up in 2009 when about 22833 vehicles comprising 111 buses, 230 mini-buses, 6056 cars, 218 taxis, 2 jeeps, 510 three wheelers, 14037 two wheelers, 388 tractors, 636 trucks, 87 ambulance , 282 LGV, seven MGV, 230 delivery vans and 19 others were registered till November 2009.
"Though the vehicle population registered nearly 15 times growth since 1982, yet the roads have not been upgraded to keep up pace with the ever-increasing number of vehicles," said sources, adding that due to lack of road infrastructure chaotic traffic scenes have now become the order of the day here.
The increase in number of vehicles on Jammu roads have raised the graph of road accidents in upward directions with 1410 road accidents occurred last year as compared to the corresponding year of 2008 in which 1264 were reported.
Official sources said that 155 people lost their lives while 500 other sustained critical injuries in 2009. "In the month of November 2009, 152 road accidents occurred while this figure was 142 in November 2008," they added.
"About 10 to 15 percent commercial vehicles from other states in addition to vehicles registered with us have also been plying on roads across Jammu region which has further added to existing chaos. It is upto government to frame a policy to check the growing population of vehicles," he maintained.
Officials in RTO Jammu said, "The government has contemplated to construct more flyovers in different parts of city so that the problem of congestion is solved."
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