Life out of gear, roads choke with traffic in Dharamsala

Raghav Guleria

Dharamsala, June 9

The scorching heat has triggered exponential hike in the number of vehicles reaching Dharamsala, McLeodganj and Bhagsunag. The condition gets worse on the weekends, putting life out of gear.

As the zig-zag hilly road has its own limitations, successive governments have miserably failed to provide a durable solution to the problem existing for decades. Experts feel that public transport, parking lots and better use of the existing ropeway can ease the situation to a great extent.

Ashwani Bamba, president of the hotel association, strongly advocates a reduction in the fare charged by the ropeway company. According to him, it would not only help popularise it among the tourists, but also result in lesser traffic on roads. The long traffic jams on roads leading to the tourist city of McLeodganj-Bhagsunag are adversely affecting the tourism business as well.

McLeodganj, better known as ‘Little-Lhasa’, is one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the state, where thousands of tourists from the country and abroad reach every year. The number of vehicles heading for McLeodganj-Bhagsunag, especially on weekends, is beyond the carrying capacity of the available infrastructure. A few locals believe that the problem of traffic jam can be solved to a great extent if the Heer-Indrunag road gets through to reach Bhagsunag at Karmu turn.

The additional police deployment, especially dedicated for the peak tourist season, has got delayed due to the General Election. As many as 48 jawans are likely to take up positions on the outskirts, which are experiencing a sudden rise in tourist activities.

McLeodganj police station in-charge, Yadesh Kumar, said keeping in view the tourist season and weekends, additional police personnel had been deployed at the main squares in McLeodganj, Bhagsunag and other places and to ease the movement, one-way traffic was being implemented.