Road repairs snarl up traffic in Kangra

Our Correspondent

Kangra, July 4

The town today experienced unprecedented traffic jam on the Dharamsala road and outside the general bus stand with the movement of hundreds of vehicles being greatly affected. Even an ambulance carrying a patient was caught up in the jam. Only one policeman was seen regulating traffic at the entrance of the bus stand.

The reason for the traffic jam was that a contractor, who is laying optical fibre, had not only dug up the road but also left it unfilled on one side of the Dharamsala road from the petrol pump up to HDFC Bank. The other reason was that the PWD was carrying out the work of constructing the road at the exit point of the bus stand on the same road.

Traffic jams on the road were seen during the peak hours this morning and also in the afternoon when offices closed. A traffic jam was experienced from Fortis Hospital in the Birta locality on the outskirts of this temple town up to the Polytechnic College gate leaving commuters high and dry.

The movement of pedestrians was also affected as on the one side they had dug-up channels and on the other a long queue of vehicles.

Buses, light motor vehicles carrying tourists, cars and two wheelers all were seen stuck in the jam.

Dr Bal Chander, Associate Professor, DRPGMC, Tanda, had a heated exchange with the lone police personnel for his failure to regulate traffic. He said the police could have diverted the traffic from Gurkhari Chowk and the bypass and adopted one-way traffic for a few days till the work of repairing the road was completed and avoided subjecting people, including tourists, pilgrims and local residents, to inconvenience.

This road connects two private hospitals — Fortis and Bala Ji. Besides, on the other end of the road is the Civil Hospital and then the road leads to the DRPGMC at Tanda.

It took vehicles nearly one hour to cover 1 km distance from Fortis Hospital to SBoP Chowk. The town faces traffic jams every day with the authorities preferring to remain a mute spectator to the plight of commuters.

Thousands of vehicles ply on the Dharamsala road daily, but the police ignore the problem of traffic chaos, local residents say.