Encroachments a bane for Jahajgarh

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 18

A major portion of Jahajgarh has been encroached upon by several traders. It defeats the purpose of raising a separate transport area to decongest the city.

The Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) had set up Jai Inder Singh Transport Nagar, popularly known as Jahajgarh, in the city several years ago but the district administration failed to move heavy vehicle repair workshops, goods carrier offices and booking offices to the place.

A transporter, Anantdeep Singh, said, “At the outset, restricted pockets of the area were allotted. After verification, those plots were allotted to transporters. Subsequently, the scheme was opened to non-transporters who procured the land at below the market rate and sold off the same. So there is a large number of shops of junk dealers dealing in used spare parts of abandoned vehicles. Now, hotels have also come up.”

Consequently, transport companies and workshops have mushroomed in different parts of the city. The private commercial establishments park their buses and trucks outside their shops, which increases the congestion and adds to the traffic chaos.

Hence, a majority of heavy vehicle repair workshops, goods carrier offices and booking offices are situated in and around Shera Wala Gate, outside Hall Gate, along Gol Bagh and Akali Phula Singh Gurdwara road. Besides, such establishments can be found in other localities as well.

The Truck Wali road, along Gol Bagh, is called so as trucks and buses remain parked there day and night.

The road offers another route from outside Hathi Gate to the railway station and the Bhandari bridge, but it is not popular among commuters. These workshops do not have enough space to accommodate vehicles inside their premises so they take up repair works on the road. Besides, many sub-lanes on the road have workshops for passenger buses.

A transporter, Mandeep Singh, said the district administration, to ensure trouble-free movement of vehicles, should ensure that automobile workshops operate only in Jahajgarh, not at any other place.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said he would seek legal opinion to move the automobile shops to Jahajgarh before moving resolution in the Municipal Corporation House.