New showrooms, malls on Janipur road add to traffic congestion

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 13

The continuous opening of new showrooms and malls on one of the most congested roads of the city — New Plot-Janipur road — is adding to the woes of people.

A number of malls and showrooms have been opened on the New Plot-Janipur road, which is already among the most congested roads of the city. Travelling on this road during peak hours is not less than a nightmare for the commuters.

But ironically, the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), which claims to have regular encroachment drives to clear the narrow roads of the city, is frequently issuing permission for the construction of malls and buildings on the road without ensuring proper parking space with the building.

“This road was already congested and now these malls and showrooms have made it difficult for the commuters to cross this 3-km stretch, which at times take 30 minutes,” said Abhishek Sharma, a frequent commuter on the Janipur-New Plot road.

“Long queues of vehicles outside these big malls and automobile showrooms cover half of the road and the rest is dug up by some agency. Why the JMC allows these buildings to be constructed? Can’t they see the width of the road?” he asked.

The road, which connects to the Jammu High Court as well, has hundreds of shops on the roadside and the footpath of the road is covered with products displayed by these shops. Earlier there was only one bike showroom at Tali-morh, but now another multi-storey showroom of Hero Honda has been started. Apart from this, the JMC has also allowed Vishal Mega Mart to open its multi-storey showroom on the congested road, which has the parking capacity of hardly 10 vehicles that, too, is being used as their dumping room.

Similarly, Gunjan Plaza, Bikaner Sweets, Pamposh Building at Main Stop and many more are creating traffic chaos in the locality and some other buildings are also under construction on the same road.

“We have been demanding a flyover on this road for the last many years, but the government has done nothing to clear the road. Now allowing these huge buildings on this road will increase the liabilities of the government if they plan to clear the road in future,” said Surinder Khajuria, a shopkeeper at Janipur.

“The authorities should immediately shift these buildings from this road and plan something for the clearing this road,” he added.

The state government in its written reply to a question raised in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in Jammu this year said they did not have any plan for any flyover or clearing of the Janipur-New Plot road.

Saujanya Sharma, Commissioner, JMC, said, “At the time of seeking permission, the building owners have shown the parking space in the basement. But actually they have made it a storeroom as people do not want to park their vehicle in the basement.”

“I have stopped issuing any new permission on this road for any commercial building and we are planning to start a surprise checking of the parking space of these buildings. Heavy fine will be imposed on the people using the parking space as a storeroom,” he added.