Srinagar, July 31: Not only the City but even all roads leading to the summer Capital seem to be in a mess. If Pantha Chowk square, Valley’s sole link to south Kashmir and Jammu faces chronic gridlocks, so is the plight at the other end of the suburb highway which connects to the north Kashmir and Muzaffarabad as traffic jams are a routine in the congested Parimpora-Shalteng stretch.
 The government’s failure to get the road timely widened from the present single lane to four lane has been badly affecting the movement of vehicles, particularly in the peak hours when thousands of vehicles are seen struggling to make out.

THE PROBLEM
 Near Shalteng, the problem is that the single lane road provides a crossing towards Bandipora road and also towards the Baramulla highway, which furthers to frontier Uri, Kupwara and even Muzaffarabad.
 Some three lakh vehicles ply on the highway everyday while the rush is most at the peak hours, the office opening and closing timings thereby furthering the congestion.
 The residents of Baramulla and other adjoining districts have often been complaining that their considerable time goes waste in the travel to Srinagar or back because of the jams enroute.
 “The problem is so chronic that one has to spare an hour for the gridlocks, which only prove detrimental for the development and prosperity of the people,” said a Srinagar based lecturer working in Baramulla.
 Patients being ferried to City hospitals, on the other hand, are the main sufferers of the problem.
 “One can imagine the plight of patient when the ambulance ferrying him or her gets stuck in a helpless situation,” said a ambulance driver.

‘CAUSE OF MISHAPS’
 A Tata Sumo driver said given the Shalteng mess, the drivers tend to drive fast ahead simply to compensate the time loss. And this is what proves deadly.
 Scores of mishaps take place on the highway while officials says its mostly because of over speeding.

THE ‘VIP GUEST APPEARANCES’
 Interestingly, given the routine rush coupled with this year’s inflow of tourist vehicles, heading towards Gulmarg and other resorts, the VIPs driving down the Parimpora highway have fallen prey to the congestion on the highway.
 A few weeks back the former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayed and his party colleague Muhammad Dilawar Mir got held up for some two hours near Parimpora while in the latest Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ali Muhammad Sagar was seen tasting the Aam Aadmi’s problem.

THE SNAIL’S PACE
 Despite the intervention of Divisional Commissioner Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon, who sought a gear up in the work, the concerned authorities seem to be sleeping over the issue.
 Ironically instead of prioritizing the widening near the choked Shalteng chowk, more work is being done away from the site.
 This is evident from the fact that a pump station in the middle of the road is yet to be relocated from the site.
 Observers said immediate widening of the road stretch near the bottleneck would provide relief from the traffic jams. And interestingly, as per officials, doing it shouldn’t be that time consuming because the building structures on either sides of the highway have already been cleared.
 “All what is required is timely metalling of the to be widened portion followed by macadamization,” said a traffic expert who has studied the problem in the area.

POLICING EFFORTS
 While the Traffic police has deployed some half a dozen cops for the traffic regulation, there “meager presence” helps, but little.
 “There’s no denying the fact the traffic cops do there duty efficiently in the area but how can they make thousands of vehicles smoothly ply on the narrow road… This is humanly impossible an illogical,” said a Srinagar based medico who goes to work in Tangmarg, everyday.
 And given this problem enroute even the SP City West, Dr Sunil Gupta is often seen himself trying get the traffic regulated.
 “The traffic jams here have at times been a cause of roadside brawls and we want to avoid such incidents,” a senior police official said.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 1 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST