Pedestrians suffer in absence of proper zebra crossings

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 18

Though the police have started the e-challaning system against jumping of red light and zebra crossing violations at six locations in the city recently, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has failed to pay attention towards improper zebra crossings and missing stop lines at various intersections.

Pedestrians are unable to use the zebra crossings at most of the locations in the city. Reason: the blockades such as road dividers and railings, which cause obstructions, have not been removed to clear the path on zebra crossings. These obstructions defeat the actual purpose of the zebra crossings due to which pedestrians face a lot of inconvenience at the busiest roads.

A zebra crossing at Hero Bakery Chowk on Pakhowal Road is fading and not properly visible. It is difficult for a pedestrian to cross the road via this zebra crossing (just outside the Hero Bakery store) as the road median obstructs the way. The height of the median is nearly one feet and pedestrian often loss balance while jumping it.

According to road safety experts, there should be no obstruction on either end of the pedestrian crossing, but most zebra crossings in the city have been marked in a way that medians obstruct the way of pedestrians.

The medians cause obstruction for the pedestrians at Chhatri Chowk on Mall Road too. Interestingly, the earthen pots with plants have also been kept at the median, blocking the pedestrian way on the zebra crossing there.

A few years ago, the cemented grills, which were blockades, were removed from the median outside the Pavillion Mall at Old Session Courts chowk. Now, the plants have been planted at the median from where the grills were removed to clear the obstructions for the pedestrians. Besides, the pedestrian find it difficult to cross the median due to its height and presence of grills on Hambran Road side of this chowk too.

Notably, for jumping red light or parking the vehicle on or beyond zebra crossing, the e-challan system has been started at six locations; Dholewal Chowk, Durga Mata Mandir Chowk, Chhatri Chowk on Mall Road, Old Session Courts Chowk, Hero Bakery Chowk and Mini Secretariat turn. The challans are being issued to the violators.

A member of the National Road Safety Council, Kamaljit Soi, slammed the authorities concerned for ignoring the improper zebra crossings in the city. He said, "There is no zebra crossing as per the Indian Road Congress standards in the city. The zebra crossings have been drawn in a wrong manner. Even the stop lines are missing. Before issuing the challans, it is responsibility of the authorities concerned that the zebra crossings, stop lines and infrastructure should be ensured in a right manner as per the rules. There should be no obstruction for the pedestrians on the zebra crossings."

MC's Superintending Engineer HS Bhullar said they along with the traffic police inspected the locations where the e-challan system has been started. "The zebra crossings are being drawn in a right manner. The median portion will be removed to clear the obstructions, he added."