Vehicular traffic on the congested narrow streets of Jammu city has almost come to the verge of collapse. There is no stopping of the number of private vehicles and mini-buss added to the existing count each passing day. At the same time, there is no plan whatsoever for broadening the old streets of the city. In such a situation, presence of a traffic policeman on the beat is nothing more than a sham. Even if ten instead of one traffic policeman are deployed at some of the more congested beats, still they cannot manage the traffic to make it smooth. The confusing situation is made more confounded by the motorbike riders whose number has swelled beyond proportion in the city and for whom no separate channel is available. The chaos is made worse by arbitrary and uncontrolled parking of private vehicles at odd places where they add to the perils of traffic management. There are no parking slots in the city either underground or over ground. The worst is that the mini buses, the main source of public transport in the city, are a law unto themselves. They are subject to no rule and no norm. They stop wherever they want and they park wherever they want. They abuse the commuters who tell them to stop playing loud and ear piercing blurring nasty music and filthy songs or conversation. They change routs at sweet will, and they overload passengers to make life hell during the short travel. These scenes are particularly visible on routes like Janipur-Ambphalla, Paloura-Patoli-Sarwal, Sarwal-Rehari Chungi, Subash Nagar-Rehari, Talab Tillo-Canal, Jewel Chowk and several others places in city.
Recently, traffic department installed red light signals at critical crossings. This is a modern system universally accepted and put in place. How much money has been invested in this scheme is not known to anybody. But did any among the planners ever think whether this scheme would be successful in a city choked with traffic on narrow lanes? When the lights were installed not a single driver observed it. And now the traffic department has decided to shut most of them. The traffic department runs by whims of officers and not by some rationale. Why were lights installed when they find these do not work?
There are reports that traffic police is in a rush to catch the defaulters, make challans and realize the amount of fine imposed on them. We appreciate their determination to get hold of defaulters and punish them under rules. That is a deterrent and the purpose is to ensure safety on the roads for the pedestrians as well those who drive machines. But what about the mini buses and what about the infrastructural facilities which an efficient traffic management should have? The mini buses are known for violating traffic rules like stopping at odd places, overloading, playing loud music, having choking seating capacity against the stipulated norms, running outdated vehicles and so forth. These buses are said to be the life line of traffic policemen and the hierarchy. Most of these mini buses don’t have even valid papers to run on specified routes and whenever there is checking they change their routes on their own. Why do not traffic authorities review the routes and revise connectivity plan so that mini buses could maximally ply from end to end. If a mini-bus can ply between Janipur Colony and Bishnah, why should not a mini-bus ply between Anand Nagar and Railway Station or Airport to reduce congestion at Jewel Chowk? The rout plan of mini buses is deeply influenced by vested interest.
Traffic police is not supposed to confine itself to only fault finding with vehicle driving folks. It’s essentially duty is to control the movement of vehicles so that there is no traffic jam on the streets and that pedestrians are not discomforted. The authorities have fixed a certain target of fine collection and the cops are forgetting other duties but confining to collection of fines on account of violation of traffic rules. That is the scene one meets with frequently these days at busy squares and points of traffic. This is an unhealthy sign and can lead to protests by those who expect the cops to regulate traffic.
Authorities are fully aware of the problems posed by congested streets, and crowded traffic. This has led to the building of some flyovers in the city that have eased traffic at various points. But much more remains to be done and many flyovers are yet to be built. We also need subways and the authorities should take that option into consideration. Wherever bottlenecks obstruct free flow of traffic these have to be removed. City traffic should remain under constant supervision of authorities and changes to ease the flow should be brought in without fear and favour. Vested interest should not be allowed to supervene.
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