2 U-Turns being provided to ease out the problem: SSP Traffic
Jalil Rathor
Srinagar: Once a death trap, which consumed several lives in the past, the Sanat Nagar crossing has now become an unbearable inconvenience for the commuters, who get stuck up in the Jam for hours, leaving them exhausted in desperation to reach to their respective destinations in time.
The headache gets amplified by the haphazardly parked cars outside food joints, bakery shops and departmental stores on the southern side of the bypass.
Meanwhile, traffic lights are for namesake as those are put off by the traffic personnel for most of the day, to make the traffic of privilege through, but by keeping civilian traffic at halt on both Rawalpora and Sanat Nagar sides, for an unbearable amount of time.
The mess is so complicated that the residents on the either side have to leave their homes, hours earlier to cross the bypass, to reach a distance, which would normally be covered in few minutes.
Pertinently a decade ago, the problem did not exist at all, as there was a big circle, which was neither dangerous to cross, neither was it time-consuming.
Once the circle was removed and traffic lights installed, the crossing has become dangerous for life on one side, particularly in early morning and late evening hours, when speedy truck drivers pay two hoots to traffic lights.
Several accidents proved to be fatal for the public and many lives were lost, since the traffic lights were put, a mother-daughter duo to make a particular mention of here, who was run over by a speedy vehicle.
Now that the pressure of security force’s vehicles has increased many folds, with military personnel taking over the control of the traffic regulation, civilian traffic and traffic police take a back seat for maximum period of the day, leaving the commuters frustrated.
Meanwhile, traffic authorities seem to be insensitive towards working in coordination with force’s authorities to get a cooler for the civilian commuters, alongside the smooth movement of force’s convoys.
Syed Tariq Qadri, a resident on the southern side of Sanat Nagar crossing told news agency KDC that he regrets to shift to the area 15 years back, when it was a very feasible area to live, in the context traffic movement.
He said, “I shifted here from Lalbazar area with great dreams to live in an area known for its elegance and peace, but ever since traffic mess here got complicated, I regret my decision to come here to live”.
“I am seriously thinking to migrate yet again to some area, where I don’t have to face traffic nuisance,” he added.
Another resident Mohammad Shafi Khan, resident of Rawlpora said, “It has become a headache to go towards Sanat Nagar from my home, as I have to stay in a long and time-consuming jam to cross over, particularly in the mornings and evenings.”
“I normally avoid to venture on this route, particularly during these hours,” he said.
“Why doesn’t Traffic department focus on this enormous public inconvenience, to find a way out to solve the problem,” Khan added.
Another commuter on the condition of anonymity, “Why don’t the traffic authorities take up the matter with higher-ups of the security agencies, to find a solution to the problem, to pave a way for smooth passage of both, civilian as well as convoy movement.”
“Why don’t police and traffic authorities curb the issue of wrong parking on either side of the crossing, which is another big impediment in the way of smooth passage of the traffic,” he added.
The locals appreciated the recent step of SSP traffic to close the Bemina crossing and instead providing a U-Turn on either side of the crossing, which they said has proven very successful for the smooth movement of the traffic from all the four sides of the crossing, adding that why can’t be the learning replicated at Sanat Nagar crossing, to solve the mess to a great extent.
Meanwhile, SSP Traffic Javed Koul told KDC that the problem is in the knowledge of the department and also the inconvenience caused to commuters, as a result of this problem, which the department is working at to solve.
“We want to adopt the Bemina type of system at Sanat Nagar crossing as well and have approached Roads and Building (R&B) Department long back, with a request to identify, two spots where the highway could be cut to provide U-Turns; however the R&B department has not so far replied to our request.”
“The delay is from the R&B Department and as soon as the spots are identified, we will provide these U-Turns, which will be of a great relief to the commuters,’ he said.
About the mess of wrong parking, Javed Koul said,” We are trying our best to eradicate the mess, but it is also the duty of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to verify the feasibility in the context of car parking, while issuing licenses to shops and permissions to the commercial buildings; however we will put extra efforts to restrain people from parking their cars at the bottleneck spots.” (KDC)
