Sunny Dua
Four persons have been killed and twenty four injured five of them seriously in two separate road accidents that occurred at Budhal in Rajouri and Mendhar in district Poonch on Friday. As usual, overloading and driver’s negligence are being described as prime reasons for both accidents. The fact remains that how much more lives are required to be lost before roads in J&K State are declared safe. The irony is that we don’t learn any lesson which is why same mistake is repeated and precious human lives are lost.
Still ironical is that even city roads where traffic moves at snail’s pace witness deaths in multiple numbers what to talk of highways especially hilly ones that have seen more blood on them than bitumen. It was only last year that Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar had in open and jam packed court expressed dis-satisfaction over the measures being taken by the Traffic Police and sought more remedial measures for desirable results.
These fatal accidents, traffic jams, hap hazardous parking, noise and air pollution finally end up with authorities playing blame games. While traffic authorities accuse Municipal Corporations of allowing illegal constructions of banquets hall without parking spaces the later accuse system of pressurising them to allow such constructions. In between health department accuses people of being hostile towards them during accidents while people accuse traffic authorities for not checking overloading and allied issues that fall under their domain. In totality the blame game continues till more lives are lost.
Primarily what’s needed is construction of safe roads and in doing so we need to keep bending and banking of roads in mind. Whichever road stretch is taken up should be made completely safe and only then the work on second one should be taken up. A race to make roads reach every nook and corner of state leads engineers to carve out half-baked roads which are not even worth a pony-ride. And then people drive on them, which is like inviting deaths. The road completion should not be confined to finishing up to premix level but marking them, constructing parapets and installing adequate road signs should also be done before allowing driving on them.
The same formula should be applied for city roads, many of which are blind at bends, stay waterlogged, have narrow carriageways, remain encroached, don’t have footpaths, are barricaded, ill designed and even lack basic markings the primary purpose of which is enable drivers to stay in his/her lane. Roads in central London which too are narrow but are organised could serve as best example of how Jammu or for that matter Srinagar roads should be designed where traffic doesn’t get snarled in future.
While we need to refurbish or completely change our public transport system with a robust and vibrant one and all city roads are required to have footpaths that are free from encroachments. Instead of symbolic anti-encroachments drives JMC, JDA and Housing Board are required to put up a joint front in making shop owners stay within their premises leaving city footpaths (both existing and proposed ones) free for pedestrians. This can become basis of setting traffic right.
Meantime, till we get a metro like services, low-floor buses or web based taxi services, the minibuses and autorickshaws need to be regulated even if some city roads are required to be made one-way or out of way. Public transport is the first thing that visitors use while arriving in Jammu or Srinagar but ill designed vehicles, modified seats to accommodate more than approved passengers, variable designs of buses both in terms of interior as well as exteriors, hap hazardous parking, taxis without meters and non-functional bus stands all pose a mysterious kind of travel system ubiquitous in the state.
Now that we have got smart traffic lights installed on almost all roads besides a well knit surveillance system in the shape of Close Circuit Tele-Vision (CCTV) cameras, cops in blue on city roads should be dislocated and made to man highways that need a constant check with regards to rash driving, overloading, plying of unfit buses and even overcharging. In addition special classes to educate drivers and cleaners of public transport system must be started wherein they can learn about their responsibilities towards passengers and how they can be sensitive towards public while boarding them or alighting from their buses.
Once this section of society becomes sensitive enough to understand how they are responsible for making cities move on wheels and help in carrying manpower to run entire administration besides transporting students and patients or workers to their designated destinations, a considerable improvement could be sensed. On the other hand, people are also required to understand that driving sense requires giving way to smaller vehicles and pedestrians first and not have a ‘might is right’ kind of attitude.
During past some time, it has been learnt that most of the fatal accidents involved children and women drivers on their two wheelers and crushed or hit by heavy vehicles. That’s something quite pathetic and needs special focus wherein drivers must be educated how to give way to small vehicles. In most of the cases involving heavy vehicles it has been found that there are more than eight to ten blind points which is why their drivers are required to be extra cautious.
In nutshell if each and every department does its work ably, the issue of massive traffic and pollution could be checked. Taffic department must regulate vehicles, PWD should rectify roads, JMC must clear footpaths off encroachments, JDA should also remove removing encroachments, Pollution Control Board must check generators and industries emitting harmful gases, motor vehicle department needs to issue fitness certificates after scrutiny, body builders must be warned against altering seats in public transport, PDD must relocating their poles and Transformers located in streets and roads, banquet halls and hotels must be asked to managing parking and most primarily all illegal constrictions must be stopped henceforth if we intend to see some perceptible change in prevailing traffic as well as pollution scenario.
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