Srinagar, June 13: For nearly five lakh ‘personalized vehicles’ in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu, there are just three and a half dozen parking slots, leading to on-street parking, one of the major causes of road fatalities and traffic jams.
 According to Traffic info 2010, the JK Traffic Department’s annual publication, there are about two dozen parking slots in the Srinagar city, which has a personalized vehicular population of 1, 15,396 as on date. Similarly, Jammu city has one and a half dozen parking places for personalized transport of 3,07,676 vehicles. “The parking is too insufficient to accommodate the personalized transport registered in the two cities as parking space for at least 10,000 vehicles is required in either of these two cities,” writes the former Inspector General of Police (Traffic), M A Shah, in the Trafficinfo.
 This, Shah writes, forces the drivers to park their vehicles on roads, leading to abhorrent traffic jams. “The traffic police have to suffer the pangs of heated jamming on the roads on account of this till someone wakes up to address the issue of parking,” he laments.
 In Srinagar city, the vehicular population has increased from 1, 23,319 in March 2005 to 1, 56, 991 in March 2009, indicating an increase of 27 percent vehicles. This population in Jammu city has witnessed an increase from 2, 79, 652 vehicles in March 2005 to 3, 73,127 vehicles in March 2009, showing an increase of 33 percent. This is excluding thousands of vehicles of security forces and the inter-state vehicles, which are not registered.
 In the Central Business District (CBD) here, which extends from Dalgate to Batamaloo, a huge chunk of vehicles can be seen parked on roads throughout the day. The traffic cops are unable to curb the wrong parking menace, leading to frequent traffic jams. Similar is the situation with Jammu’s Residency Road. “Traffic cops lift the illegally-parked vehicles through the cranes and fine the drivers. But where shall the people park their vehicles in absence of adequate parking slots?” asked Shabir Ahmad Khan, a Sumo driver. “Many accidents take place because people are forced to walk on the middle of a road. The authorities must construct more parking slots so that nobody is allowed to park his vehicle on road. It is one of the major causes of traffic jams.”
 The Traffic info also mentions that there were lesser vehicle stands in the twin cities, particularly for vehicles like Sumos, mini buses, heavy buses, taxies and auto rickshaws. “There are a few bus stands available in Srinagar and Jammu cities, yet there are insufficient stands for Sumos and mini buses. Thus, the spillover of such vehicles is witnessed on the main roads,” the publications mentions. “The government needs to undertake measures on war-footing to identify and develop the stands for various types of vehicles to get rid of traffic jams.”
 Besides development of footpaths, the traffic department has also called for construction of bus bays, subways, overhead bridges and passenger sheds at several places across the two cities to curb the traffic chaos. “These things have to be put in place if traffic congestion is to be lessened. Till that happens, we are helpless. The mounting vehicular pressure would make it increasingly difficult to regulate traffic in the twin cities. The government must wake up to the issues,” said a senior traffic police official.
 According to Traffic info, for want of footpaths, a big volume of pedestrian traffic is diverted on the main roads, compounding the traffic jam. “Thus, footpaths needs to be developed and maintained well to cater to the requirements of the pedestrian traffic to help the Traffic Police to ensure smooth regulation and safety n roads,” it mentions.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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