Haphazard parking of buses, rickshaws outside bus stand worsens congestion

Anil Kakkar

Sirsa, June 6

Due to the haphazard parking of buses, autos and e-rickshaws outside the city’s main bus stand, there is a constant traffic jam. Often, the congestion is so severe, two-wheelers, four-wheelers and even pedestrians have a hard time navigating the chaos. Neither the bus station administration nor the traffic police are paying attention to this issue, resulting in daily inconvenience to thousands.

Thousands of passengers travel daily from the Sirsa bus stand to Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi. A majority of these passengers travel to Hisar and Delhi. Besides, state-run buses and private buses operating under the kilometre scheme also pass through the bus stand. These buses are parked in front of the gate to pick up passengers, which frequently leads to traffic jams on the main road.

Another major cause of traffic jams on the road near the bus stand is the auto and e-rickshaw drivers. In their rush to pick up as many passengers as possible, they park their vehicles in front of each other, leading to congestion. The traffic police have established rules to ensure the smooth movement of passengers, but these rules are often ignored by bus and e-rickshaw drivers, leading to chaos.

Jatin Arora, a city resident, said there were traffic jams outside the bus stand, extending up to the railway overbridge daily. Jatin said the number of e-rickshaws was so high in the city that there might not be enough passengers for all of them. He said the district administration should pay attention to this problem and set a limit on the number of e-rickshaws that can run in a city to alleviate traffic congestion.

The traffic police take perfunctory action every three to four months, but soon, the situation reverts to the same state. There is no permanent deployment of traffic police personnel at the site, and the bus stand management also neglects this issue, causing considerable inconvenience to people.

Sirsa traffic police station incharge Shamsher Singh said several instructions had been issued to prevent buses and rickshaw drivers from parking in front of the bus stand. Despite this nothing had changed. If buses and rickshaws are parked in front of the bus stand again, fines will be imposed. Additionally, the issue of encroachment outside the bus stand will also be addressed, he said.