Srinagar, Aug 10: A day after a strike on call by traders’ fraternity, massive traffic jams were witnessed Tuesday  in the summer Capital, particularly the City centre areas as around four lakh vehicles ventured out on the roads.
 The jams started from around 9:30 AM, when the peak rush usually starts. But thereafter there was no respite as the roads remained congested amid deafening horns and scotching heat. Many a people complained that they couldn’t make it to their destinations in-time.

THE MESS
 On the busy Lal Chowk-Batamaloo track, long queues of vehicles could be seen stuck as they struggled to move ahead at “snail’s pace”.
 The jam was worst towards the Regal Chowk Amira Kadal side, which is mostly used by the mini buses heading to cross the bridge. As the buses resorted to frequent stops, the gridlocks furthered and private vehicles started to avoid Amira Kadal road. This put more pressure on the Budshah Chowk side.
 But there again the frequent movement of VIP vehicles coming, and going to Civil Secretariat disrupted the smooth flow of traffic as the cops could be seen giving priority to the official vehicle than Aam Aadmi.
 “This is injustice. Nowhere it happens that the routine flow of traffic is hindered to make every Tom, Dick and Harry travelling in Sarkari vehicles take lead to travel,” a lawyer could be heard telling to a beat constable.
 In the afternoon the problem was furthered when the buses of a Missionary school at Lal Chowk came out of the Abi Guzar Lane. The disruption in the movement on the Traffic towards the City centre had a cascading effect on the entire Poloview- Hari Singh High Street stretch. Pertinently, despite the instructions of the Traffic police department, officials said, the school has failed to operate its buses from across the Jhelum near Lal Mandi Footbridge, which is just at a stone’s throw distance from the school.
 At Hari Singh High Street and Batamaloo, the presence of roadside vendors, as per the witnesses, disrupted vehicular flow.
 The traffic problem on Hawal, Maharaj Gunj, Nawa Bazar, Karan Nagar, Natipora and Bemina roads was compounded by the absence of men-in-blue of the “staff starved” Traffic police department.

SMC FACTOR
 While a reason for the traffic jams looked the footpath encroachments, eyebrows are being raised on the working of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation for failing to keep a check on the roadside vendors.
 Pertinently in April a high level team led by Divisional Commissioner Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon and IGP Traffic Hemant Kumar Lohia, during an on-the-spot inspection of City traffic, had identified the bottlenecks mostly in the form of footpath vending and roadside showcasing of on sale commodities.
 Dr Samoon had directed the SMC Commissioner Sheikh Mushtaq to keep a check on the menace. And to avoid any sudden resentment from the encroachers, the IGP Traffic had said the violators be served notices in advance.  But till now the civic body seems to have failed to act. Interestingly what mostly happens during SMC drives against footpath vending is that the corporation squad is thrashed by the miscreants. And this is the plea which SMC often takes cover of for failing to act.  Observers said the City police should provide requisite protection to the SMC squad so that the “lame excuse of getting thrashed ends”.

VIP MOVEMENT
 Officials said the traffic had to be intermittently restricted due to VIP movement in the wake of Union Home Secretary’s visit to Srinagar.
 “For security reasons sudden diversions of traffic flow did remain a cause for the congestion,” said an official requesting not to be named.
 He, however, said the traffic could still be effectively managed if adequate number of cops were put to duty to regulate four lakh odd vehicles which plied in the City Tuesday.
 Pertinently mere 250 odd cops regulate the entire City traffic spanning over some 1800 kilometer road network.

TRAFFIC POLICE SPEAKS
 The SP Traffic Srinagar Maqsood-Ul-Zaman said there were no jams but that the “flow slowed down.”
 “There were no jams but the traffic slowed down,” Zaman said while regulating the Traffic near TRC Crossing.
 He attributed the “slow down” to the surge in flow of vehicles after a day of Hartal. “People came out in big numbers that too in as many vehicles as possible. So the slow down was obvious,” the SP said. He however said the flow was streamlined by afternoon.

Quote
Pertinently in April a high level team led by Divisional Commissioner Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon and IGP Traffic Hemant Kumar Lohia, during an on-the-spot inspection of City traffic, identified bottlenecks mostly in the form of footpath vending and roadside showcasing of on sale commodities. The SMC Commissioner was directed to take effective measures as early as possible. But till now the civic body seems to have failed to act.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST