Road chaos worsens by the day

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 23

With Jammu’s population expected to rise to 20 lakh in 2032, the city is heading for a “catastrophic situation” in managing its traffic in coming decade as the government has failed to speed up building of new roads and expanding the existing infrastructure.

Frightening daily chaos on roads is already a constant reminder that successive governments have ignored the basic objective of urban planning and followed misplaced policies since the first master plan was rolled out in 1978.

With the master plan-2032 formulated by the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) yet to get the approval of the government and implementation of multi-billion Comprehensive City Mobility Plan still years away, the road network is on the verge of collapse with people getting caught in snarls for hours daily to reach their offices and homes. Accidents claimed 300 lives in 2016 alone.

At present, there are close to six lakh vehicles in the district which has a total population of 15 lakh (7.50 lakh live in the core city area of Jammu city) spread around 115 sq km. The city limits are expected to increase to 500 sq km in the next decade which means addition of lakhs of vehicles, but so far no major project has been started to deal with the future needs.

Crumbling roads are years away from expansion with almost negligible addition to the existing infrastructure created in late 1960s to meet the demands of the expanding city.

In fact, the mess in the city has been shaped by two factors. Firstly, the urban planning and master plan were never taken seriously by successive governments, and secondly the influx of lakhs of people displaced due to militancy in the Valley and other districts of Jammu since 1990.

The only success story has been the flyover from Jewel Chowk to BC Road which was completed in late 1999 while the construction of another flyover from Bikram Chowk to Gandhi Nagar is expected to be completed in 2017. However, it is unlikely to address the woes of travellers. Remaining flyover projects at BC Road-Amphalla and Canal Road have been abandoned.

Booming transport sector

While the government has failed to expand the road network, the latest figures of the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) reveal a frightening scenario. Half the figures relate to the Jammu division.

As against 5,23,543 vehicles registered in 2006, the number of vehicles has reached 13,758,88 in J&K during 2016 registering an increase of 162 per cent. A majority of the vehicles ply on roads of Srinagar and Jammu city, where roads have not seen much expansion in decades.

“During 2016, the MVD registered 1,31,617 vehicles. There was a growth of 18.36 per cent over the previous year. The department has issued 5,274 fresh route permits and 51,956 route permits have been renewed. There has been a rise of 15.47 per cent in the state and they all will use the existing infrastructure”, said an official from the Motor Vehicles Department.

The department has issued 69,148 new licences, registering an increase of 12.8 per cent.

Traffic lights too have failed

“Travelling on the roads of the temple city is akin to playing a noisy video game. Rashly driven minibuses, two-wheeler riders without helmets, illegally parked vehicles and overtaking have become norm of the day”, said Rakesh Sharma, a private employee.

A few years back the traffic light system was installed to manage traffic, but it has turned out to be a white elephant as it has failed completely in regulating vehicles.

On an average, traffic police challan 10,000 vehicles per month in Jammu for violation of traffic rules, mainly related to overloading, over-speeding, rash driving and plying two-wheelers without helmet.

Overspeeding by minibus drivers, which has already claimed several lives, is another problem. The drivers compete with one another for passengers and pose a threat to their lives as well as pedestrians. However, traffic cops turn a blind eye to the violations.

CMP still in planning stage

Jammu’s burgeoning vehicle numbers is eating up its scarce road space at an alarming pace due to lack of parking space. The failure of the government to plan a robust public transport has allowed plying of thousands of private vehicles.

Though there is much-hyped Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for creating a public transport system, it needs an estimated investment of Rs 20,000 crore for improving urban infrastructure.

The state government had in 2015 announced to implement Rs 16,632 crore CMP for Jammu in a phased manner which included 50-km-long monorail service and 130-km-long Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. Experts say it is too ambitious as the city does not have space to build the BRT system and there is need to expand and include more villages in municipal limits.

A Rs 1,350-crore project to build a ring road around the winter capital to ease increasing traffic congestion is still at a planning stage and needs approval of the Union government.

“The implementation of JNNURM project had exposed the squabbling between departments. Failure to attract the private sector investment due to special status of the state has further added to the chaos”, said a senior official in the Urban Development Department.