Traffic chaos prevails on Pakhowal Road

Kuldip Bhatia

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Ludhiana, January 31

Even as the entire stretch of Pakhowal Road from Sidhwan Canal towards Lalton Kalan village and beyond has been a big traffic bottleneck for quite some time now, Phullanwal-B7 Chowk stands out like a sore thumb for being accident-prone and persistent traffic jams.

Residents of various residential localities along both sides of the road and those in multi-storey flats have been bearing the brunt of traffic chaos for little or no traffic management by any agency even though the problematic B-7 Chowk and roads culminating at this intersection have claimed a few precious human lives as well during the past couple of years.

According to residents, the multiple government agencies responsible for traffic management and maintenance of chaotic Phullanwal-B 7 Chowk have been completely indifferent towards the plight of people’s suffering. “It is a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth,” quips Aneesh Sobti, a resident of Omax Housing Complex on Pakhowal Road.

Sobti has a point because the part of this stretch of road and the (B-7) intersection involves roads maintained by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), PWD, the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Agency (GLADA) and the Municipal Corporation.

Area residents maintain that traffic jams during the peak hours, in the morning at school and office time, and again in the evening, are a common sight at the chowk. At times, the school buses or even ambulances get stuck in the snarl-ups and PCR staff have to be called in to regulate the traffic. “Sometimes back, traffic lights were installed to regulate traffic at Phullanwal Chowk but these were removed for no apparent reason,” say the residents.

Traffic expert Rahul Verma, who is also associated with an NGO ‘Sambhav’, says meetings of all government bodies concerned and the district authorities had discussed the issue of traffic problem on this stretch of road and some work was carried out by LIT and GLADA to improve the alignment of the intersection.

“The NGO, with the help of traffic experts, had also provided a tentative drawing for construction of a rotary and installation of traffic lights to GLADA officials,” he said.

According to GLADA officials, offers for ‘expression of interest (EOI)-cum-request for proposal (RFP)’ have already been invited for preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for ‘construction of rotary/ roundabout at B-7 Chowk’ and last date for submission of bids is February 7. Once the DPR is prepared, further necessary follow-up action would be taken to complete the project, said the officials.