No respite from traffic bottlenecks on roads in old city areas

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 28

Commuters continue to face traffic hurdles in old city areas. Encroachments by shopkeepers, roadside vendors and wrong parking on roads are the key reasons causing traffic jams.

The traffic police had been regularly running awareness campaigns to encourage shopkeepers and roadside vendors so that they should follow traffic rules and avoid encroachments on roads. However, all their pleas have been falling on deaf ears. Earlier, when the traffic police and Municipal Corporation sent their staff to remove the encroachments by taking action in the form of issuing challans and seizing goods kept on roads by the shopkeepers and vendors, the latter lodged a strong protest on the pretext that the authorities want to make a big dent in their businesses. Then some shopkeepers and makeshift vendors had promised the authorities that they would comply with the directions, but they followed the directions for a few days only and the situation turned worse again.

Raman Kumar, a resident of Phillaur, said he visits old city markets everyday to supply some garments on a three-wheeler and there is no single day when he does not stuck in a traffic jam. “Since I have to visit several markets to deliver items to small shopkeepers and roadside vendors in old city, due to traffic bottlenecks I waste a lot of time in commuting and these hurdles not only consume time but also increase fuel consumption,” he said.

Shweta Gupta, a housewife, said she, along with her friends, had been visiting Chaura Bazaar and other markets for shopping for a long time but traffic chaos continue to prevail till date. “The traffic police should take strict action against encroachments by shopkeepers and roadside vendors,” she said.

Another reason of traffic jam, especially on Railway Road and Chaura Bazaar area, was the rush of auto- rickshaws, which resorts to unspecified stoppages. In the past few months, the large number of e-auto-rickshaws in the city, which were usually being driven by inexperienced drivers, has further added to the traffic chaos.

In 2020, the then Police Commissioner Rakesh Aggrawal had strictly enforced traffic rules and by serving warnings followed by filing FIRs against shopkeepers and vendors, over 100 roads were made encroachment-free, which resulted in smoothly-flowing traffic on these roads. Even the drive had then conducted in old city areas, including Chaura Bazaar, Gurh Mandi, Books Market, Field Ganj, Jawahar Nagar Camp and Brown Road.

Awareness drives fail to bear fruit

The traffic police had been regularly running awareness campaigns to encourage shopkeepers and roadside vendors so that they should follow traffic rules and avoid encroachments on roads in the old city. However, all their pleas have been falling on deaf ears.

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