Govt sits on policy to smoothen traffic flow in Srinagar

Authorities continue to delay implementation of National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) in the summer capital Srinagar to smoothen traffic flow in the city and improve the existing infrastructure.

Experts said implementation of the policy has become a necessityas prolonged traffic jams have become a norm on the city roads.

   

The experts said the existing infrastructure including the roadnetwork was too little to meet the growing traffic. 

According to official data around three lakhfloating vehicle hits the roads every day in the city.

The objective of policy is to incorporateurban transportation as an important parameter at the urban planning stagerather than being a consequential requirement to bring about equitableallocation of road space with people, rather than vehicles, as its main focus.

“The implementation of policy will not only make traffic movementsmooth but safe as well,” said an official. The policy was earlier framed in2006 and revised in 2014.

However, he said, the authorities have failed to ensure executionof the policy on the ground even as the government of India has released fundsunder it.

 “Other objectives of thepolicy include that public transport should be citywide, safe, seamless, userfriendly, reliable and should provide good ambience with well-behaved driversand conductors,” he said.

The policy also covers addressing concerns of road safety andtrauma response, raising finances through innovative mechanisms, establishinginstitutional mechanisms for enhanced coordination in the planning andmanagement of transport systems and establishing knowledge management systemthat would serve needs of all urban transport professionals.

The DeputyCommissioner Srinagar ShahidIqbalChoudhary said they have started work toimplement the policy.

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