Chaos to order: Panipat admn to continue with odd-even rule

After a successful week-long trial of the odd-even vehicle formula, the district administration has decided to continue with the arrangement in ‘Textile City’.

To deal with the problem of traffic jams on the main roads of the city, the district administration had implemented the odd-even formula for one week from September 1.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the District Road Safety and Surakshit School Vahan Policy, chaired by Deputy Commissioner Virender Kumar Dahiya, Superintendent of Police Bhupender Singh and Panipat City MLA Pramod Vij in the last week of August. According to the traffic police, even as 4,300 e-rickshaws and 3,400 three-wheelers were registered, a higher number of these vehicles were plying on the city roads. Following the directions, the traffic police implemented the odd-even formula on September 1, starting with the odd number vehicles.

After checking the response for a week, the district administration has decided to continue with the system to decongest the city roads.

During the week, the traffic wing deployed more personnel on special nakas — Sanjay Chowk, red light on NH-44 in the city, Shiv Chowk on Sanoli road, Gohana turn and Sector 13/17 Chowk on NH-44, Assandh road near dhaba and toll plaza on NH-44 — to ensure an effective implementation of the scheme.

Suresh Saini, DSP Traffic, said the week-long trial to check the traffic congestion on the main roads by implementing the odd-even formula had been successful. Traffic jams were not witnessed on any city road during the week and people, too, responded positively to the new arrangement, he claimed. The main reason behind the jam-free city roads was that the number of e-rickshaws and autos was reduced to half, which came as a big relief for commuters as well as residents, the DSP added.

It has now been decided to continue the odd-even rule for the movement of e-rickshaws and autorickshaws in the city, DSP Saini said.