Failure of authorities to put in place measures for effective traffic regulation on Sunday took a heavy toll on the commuters who were stranded in traffic jams in city-centre.
In view of relaxation in shutdown, Traffic police had on Friday issued an advisory and route plan for vehicular movement in Srinagar. However, most of the commuters said Traffic police failed to implement the plan on ground.
“Commuters acted upon the advisory and adopted the notified route plan. But the traffic cops failed to ensure smooth vehicular movement ,” said Ghulam Muhammad, a commuter at Regal Chowk.
The areas which remained worst hit by the traffic jams included Polo-View, Dalgate, Regal Chowk, Amira Kadal, and Jahangir Chowk.
The problem was compounded as extensive stretch of the road from TRC to Hari Singh High Street was encroached upon by street vendors.
“The two lane road has been turned into narrow space by street vendors,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a commuter at Polo-View.
“See the traffic cops are sitting on roadside, watching all the traffic mess as mute spectators. It is commuters who are trying to regulate traffic so that they are able to make way for themselves,” he said.
Pertinently, people thronged city-centre on Sunday as separatist leaders had called for full day relaxation.
“It took me almost half an hour to travel from Regal Chowk to Jahangir Chowk. Not a single traffic cop was present to regulate the traffic,” said Basit Ahmad, a commuter.
Commuters complained that wrong parking on roads worsened the situation. “Scores of private cars are parked on roadsides. Footpaths are occupied by street vendors. There is no space for pedestrians to even walk. They are forced to walk on road which worsens the traffic jam,” said Ali Muhammad, a commuter at Hari Singh High Street.
As traffic lights are non-functional, the traffic cops manually regulate vehicular movement at few places. The situation remained chaotic in areas including Regal Chowk, Dalgate, Jahangir Chowk, Batamaloo and Karan Nagar as the traffic lights remained non-functional on these important junctures.
“Traffic lights were installed in city at busy junctures to regulate traffic effectively. For past several months, these lights are not functioning. Authorities must resume them as it would help in ending traffic mess,” said Abdul Aziz, a commuter at Karan Nagar.
Commuters said that electronic traffic signals had helped to minimize the traffic chaos at various places in past.
Despite repeated attempts, Senior Superintendent of Police, Traffic, Fayaz Ahmad Lone did not respond to calls for his comments on the issue.
