Jehangir Chowk flyover construction continues to cause traffic mess in city

Rifat Mohidin

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Srinagar, July 21

Despite measures by the Traffic Department, the flyover construction in Srinagar has become a nightmare for commuters due to frequent gridlocks near the construction site.

The stretch from Rambagh to Exhibition Road continues to witness jams for the past six months putting locals to difficulties.

The locals have blamed lack of management by the authorities concerned for failing to streamline traffic on the busy road.

“For the past one year, the traffic problem has doubled due to flyover construction. There is no proper management by the authorities. As the flyover construction will continue for another year, I don’t think there will any respite from this congestion,” said Maqbool Ahmad, a local.

The flyover from Jehangir Chowk to Rambagh is being constructed at a cost of Rs 369 crore. The project will be completed by March 2017.

“Right from the beginning we are coordinating with district administration officials for traffic management plan. There were some traffic issues recently due to macadamisation of roads,” said an official of the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA).

The officials of the Traffic Department while acknowledging that there were some traffic problems at the construction site said they were planning to divert cabs from other routes to smoothen traffic from Exhibition Road.

“We have already taken some steps to smoothen the traffic, but for this flyover construction site we are planning more diversions which will be announced soon,” said a senior official of the Traffic Department.

The work on the flyover began in 2013 and it is being financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB). The flyover when constructed will considerably reduce traffic congestion in Srinagar city and provide quick access to the International Airport.

“Once completed, the 2.4-km flyover is expected to reduce the journey time from Jehangir Chowk to Rambagh from 28 minutes to just 2.5 minutes and will go a long way in reducing the traffic congestion in the area,” said an official.

Given the present traffic situation due to the flyover construction, the administration will have to come up with some concrete solution to save Srinagar from further mess.