Plan for traffic management, encroachment removal finalised

Excelsior Correspondent

RAJOURI, Mar 16: District Magistrate, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary,  finalised several measures for better traffic management and parking facilities in and around Rajouri town as well as removal of encroachments in a meeting held  here today.
SSP Yougal Manhas, ADDC A S Chib, ACD Noor Alam, CPO A H Choudhary, Executive Engineer PWD, DGM JKPCC, ARTO, OC BRO, Tehsildar, Executive Officer Municipal Committee and field officials from Revenue, PWD and ULB departments attended the meeting.
It was decided to initiate work on construction of 5 parking lots viz Salani bridge, DH Chowk, Jawahar Nagar, Darhali and main city. Delineators will be installed on road stretch from ALG to Darhali bridge, Salani bridge to Panja Chowk, Jawahar Nagar Market, Gujjar Mandi to Abdullah bridge and other vital stretches to regulate one-way traffic.
PWD has been entrusted with the task of earmarking designated spaces  for parking of vehicles and identifying  encroachments for removal to decongest roads. The Road Transport Authority headed by Deputy Commissioner also approved purchase of a recovery van to lift illegally parked vehicles.
Meanwhile, the inter-departmental committee has been deputed for survey and initiation of work on revival of old Mughal Road from Bhella Colony to Aiti which will provide alternate connectivity to Thanamandi and Darhal bound traffic.
Removal of encroachments from main city and roads was discussed. BRO, PWD and Revenue Departments shared the lists of encroachments to be removed. More than 270 encroachments have been identified on city road from old bus stand to court complex which will be removed shortly.
The DDC directed Municipal Committee to execute the work of blacktopping old bus stand and a joint committee has been constituted for operationalisation of old and new bus stands in stipulated time-frame. Discussion was also held on early completion of city parks, circular road and alternate link roads apart from parking lots.
ARTO was directed to strictly enforce the route permit of city bound small commercial vehicles, regulation of passenger fare especially for three-wheelers and commercial Autos which will be randomly checked by a special team.