Scores of passengers were struck in a massive traffic jam at Pattan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Sunday evening due to macadamisation work carried by the Beacon authorities in the main town.
The inconvenience left hundreds of passengers high and dry as cops deployed on the road were unable to smoothly regulate the traffic. “We are stuck since 45 minutes on the road and there is no concrete effort on part of the administration to streamline the traffic movement,” said Farooq Ahmad, a passenger from Srinagar. Another passenger stuck on the road said that the authorities should have taken adequate measures to prevent such traffic jams. “I along with my family had decided to visit my in-laws this Sunday. But for last one hour we are suffering in our vehicles. The authorities should have made announcement of the road work so that we could have chalked out program likewise,” said Mubashir Ahmad, a resident of Sopore.
Residents alleged that the decision to carry out macadamisation of the road was taken ahead of visit of top state dignitaries to Baramulla scheduled on Monday for ‘My Town My Pride’ programme.
The SDM Pattan, Faheem Ahmad, however, said that the macadamisation of Srinagar-Baramulla highway has been started by the Beacon authorities recently. He said macadamisation of Srinagar-Baramulla highway at Pattan was scheduled for Sunday as traffic is less on this day.
“I have already communicated to the traffic as well as police regarding the streamlining of traffic movement on the highway following the macadamisation process,” he said.