Trip to Kasauli a nightmare

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 9

Roads leading to Kasauli are witnessing a sharp increase in vehicular traffic which surpasses the carrying capacity of the roads.

With little widening having been undertaken on the main district roads leading to Kasauli, the roads were bursting at the seams.

The worst sufferers are policemen who are manning the traffic on the narrow roads. The situation worsens at the weekends when the traffic influx is much higher.

The Garkhal junction, where five roads converged, is the worst affected as traffic jams were routine here. Though options like installing traffic lights were explored, these could not see the light of day due to the roads being exceptionally narrow. The traffic jams often make it difficult for ambulances and fire tenders to move unobstructed, wasting precious time. The narrow roads posed problems for large fire tenders which require sufficient space to turn at the Garkhal junction.

Though officials did try to explore the possibility of carving out a bypass, presence of private land acted as a deterrent to conceive this project.

Officials of the Public Works Department said little option was available to expand the roads due to the presence of buildings on both sides.

With influential and affluent people from the plains having constructed their summer houses in the area, there is an influx of large luxury vehicles on the roads during the weekends. The police have an added task of sorting out traffic disputes on the weekends.

“Traffic influx has made it difficult for the locals to travel to Kasauli at the weekends. From Dharampur one often has to spend at least 45 minutes in a jam to reach this cantonment town”, rued Rakesh Kumar, a local resident.

With little solution to ease traffic influx in sight the people residing along the roads had to bear the constant honking of horns when impatient drivers are not patient enough to wait for the traffic jams to ease.