Commuters at receiving end of poor traffic management

Kuldip Bhatia

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Ludhiana, December 15

Poor traffic planning, management and enforcement in the mega city has led to a chaotic situation on most of the city roads where extended traffic jams have become a routine rather than exception. Especially, the Old GT Road from Clock Tower to Mata Rani Chowk and further onto Old Sabzi Mandi and its feeder roads remain choked with vehicles while the traffic police fail to come to terms with the situation.

Shopkeepers and owners of business establishments located on both sides of Old GT Road allege that unrestricted movement of three-wheelers from Railway Station to Old Sabzi Mandi Chowk and from Mata Rani Chowk to Bhadaur House wreaks havoc on the flow of traffic.

“Several trial-and-error experiments carried out by the city traffic police to improve the traffic situation in these pockets have failed to yield the desired results and commuters remain at the receiving end without any relief in sight, at least in the near future,” says Jagbir Singh, a shopkeeper.

Traffic conditions in the Bhadaur House area, including stretch of road from Mata Rani Chowk to Deepak Cinema Road and further on to Domoria Bridge Chowk, are still worse, thanks to haphazard parking of vehicles and encroachments galore. Only recently, three-wheelers have also started taking this route which has further compounded the problem, maintain area residents and shopkeepers.

In the Bhadaur House area, say the affected shopkeepers, all corridors in front of the shops, parking areas and foot paths are under temporary or permanent encroachments while the truncated width of road (due to construction of down ramp of flyover) is far too inadequate to take the volume of traffic. A large number of public transport vehicles, including tempos, rehras and vans parked on the roadside to load or unload goods in Bhadaur House or AC Market, create further obstacles in the way of smooth flow of traffic.

Harried shopkeepers lay equal blame on the traffic police and the tehbazari wing of the Municipal Corporation for the problematic traffic movement, which also affected their business adversely.

“Rather than making a casual approach and experimentation which, till now, have not yielded results, the traffic police and the MC ought to put their act together. There is dire need for proper planning, regulation and traffic management which brings some semblance of order on roads in these areas,” said Gopal Krishan, a functionary of shopkeepers association.