subject: Traffic rush ‘jams' normal day in Kashmir [print this page] Traffic rush jams' normal day in Kashmir Traffic rush jams' normal day in Kashmir
Traffic rush jams' normal day in Kashmir
Waheed Yaseen
Agence India Press
November 12, 2010
Srinagar: Besiegedcontinuous curfews and hartals, commuters are having a tough time even on to so called normal days' as major roads in Srinagar on Friday witnessed unprecedented vehicular traffic causing to the frequent jams.
For major part of the normal' Friday, city roads were choc -bloc with vehicular rush adding to the traffic snarls.
Not only precious time of commuters gets lost courtesy traffic jams, they complain of facinghardships in reaching their respective destinations.
"We plan to do so many things on normal days but for these traffic jams we can't do much as most of the roads in Srinagar are jammed with vehicles. It wastes our precious time," told Ghulam Rasool Bhat to Agence India Press,adding that it took him more than 30 minutes to travel from residency road to Amira Kadal,which is a normally a 5 minute journey.
Bhat attributes the traffic mess to lack of expertise in traffic police personnel and suggests that the department shouldtrain its cops to manage the ever-growing traffic.
"Traffic police department should have made arrangements to manage this day. It was expected that being a normal day traffic is going to more today." says Bhat.
During the afternoon, whole of city centre, Lal Chowk was jammed as hundred of vehicles were stranded. Similar scenes were seen at Rambagh, Jehangir Chowk, Natipora, and Dalgate besides Pantha Chowk Bye-pass.
Shahid Ahmad, a student, however, believes that traffic police wasn't only to be blamed for the mess.
"There is no denying the fact that living standards of Kashmiris have improved over the years and number of private vehicles have increased as well. Road width is same as it was before 3 or 4 decades, so traffic jam is bound to happen," Shahid says adding Kashmir lacking proper driving sense' was also another reason for this mess.
Even rural people, who visit the Srinagar city, had to suffer thanks to the traffic jams.
"One expects city traffic to be streamlined because majority of traffic police personnel are deployed in the city but things are otherwise.It consumes a hell lot of time to travel from rural area to city or vice-versa. One witnesses traffic jam scenes right from Pantha Chowk and makes commuting a difficult exercise." states Gowhar Ahmad, a student from Pulwama, stressing need for widening of roads, exposing people to traffic rules and bringing professionalism in the traffic police and its modus operandi. (AIP)
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