Srinagar, Oct 20: As if four months of deserted streets weren’t enough to go for “minor” repairs of the otherwise busy Jehangir Chowk flyover, that the authorities started it when City roads were flooded with vehicles. The results were obvious: With one of the two flyover lanes being closed for vehicular traffic, there was a total chaos, triggering a cascading effect in the entire City centre, particularly the Batmaloo and Dalgate stretch.
 This mess is feared to continue for a few more days till the flyover repairs are completed.

FLYOVER MESS
 On Wednesday, the vehicles heading towards Batamaloo-Civil Secretariat track from Lal Chowk couldn’t skip the Jehangir Chowk junction as the flyover tube remained closed.
 Amid huge rush of vehicles pouring out in line with relaxation in the Hurriyat calendar, the vehicles struggled to crawl ahead at the square while the traffic cops could be seen making futile attempts to regulate traffic.
 Huge gridlocks of vehicles covered the roads leading to the square.

PUBLIC SUFFERS
 Many students appearing in final exams complained of being worst sufferers as they couldn’t make it to the examination venues in time.
 “My exam was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM but half an hour is already gone waste,” complained a student stranded with his father near Magarmal Bagh crossing.
 A official whose cavalcade got stranded in the gridlock questioned the wisdom of doing the repairs “at the odd hour.”
 “Why didn’t they do it during curfew, hartals or other restrictions during the ongoing unrest,” he asked.

‘CHAOS PERMISSION’
 As repair work went on, on the flyover, the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department officials said they had taken formal permission to close the flyover tube.
 “We a proper permission from the traffic police department,” said Superintending Engineer R&B, Mushtaq Ahmed.
 Asked why the work wasn’t done earlier during Hartals, he said: “It couldn’t mature.”
 “We had to lay rubber at the joints… The work had to be done,” he added.
 The SE explained that the R&B was laying rubber at crevices in-between the flyover spans as otherwise it caused “some jerks” in vehicular moment.

 ‘MINOR JERKS, MAJOR IMPACT’
 Sources said some VIPs, particularly Mantris, driving down the flyover had complained of  “jerky travel” to the Civil Secretariat and sought immediate end to the inconvenience.
 “The road wasn’t dilapidated. Some minor jerks were caused at the crevices, which we’ll repair,” said a R&B official in Civil Secretariat.

CASCADING EFFECT
 Meanwhile, the Jehangir Chowk chaos had a cascading effect in the adjoining areas as the traffic jams continued till late hours.
 In the evening over a mile long gridlock could be seen on the Dalgate-TRC and the Batamaloo tracks.

‘UNDERSTAFFED’
 Pertinently, the traffic police says it was facing shortage of workforce.
 “There are mere 250 odd cops on duty while the actual requirement is 500,” said a traffic police official.
 He agreed that given the more influx of vehicles on the Hurriyat relaxation days, more cops should be deployed for traffic regulation.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST