Peak-hour snarls inevitable here
Lack of traffic law enforcement often clogs the 5-km Golf Club crossing to Polytechnic crossing stretch, say experts
› Two ‘Es’ are broadly responsible for the snail’s pace traffic movement in the city. These are ‘encroachments’ and ‘enforcement’ (poor). But in case of Lohia Path, only the latter is to be blamed. Enforcement of traffic rules, which is the responsibility of traffic police and district administration, seems completely missing here SUDEEP SINGH WALIA, a town planning expert
LUCKNOW: On January 1, when Hazratganj and other parts of the city were witnessing a grand start to the New Year, Gomti Nagar was struggling with the first and ‘worst-ever’ traffic jam of 2019.
The 12-lane Lohia Path – the city’s widest and the most developed stretch – was clogged and this also brought vehicular movement on connecting roads to a grinding halt. People stuck in the chaos called it the worst-ever traffic jam on the five-km stretch between Golf Club crossing and Polytechnic crossing.
The traffic jam not only raised a question mark over the efficacy of the multilane road, but also on the traffic management. The situation may not be as bad on regular days (as what happened on January 1), but congestion haunts commuters during peak hours (especially evenings) regularly. Experts, however, said it’s more because of traffic cops and less due to the road.
“Two ‘Es’ are broadly responsible for the snail’s pace traffic movement in the city. These are ‘Encroachment’ and ‘Enforcement’ (poor). In case of Lohia Path, fortunately only one ‘E’ is to be blamed -- that is enforcement. Enforcement of traffic rules, which is the responsibility of traffic police and district administration, seems completely missing,” said Sudeep Singh Walia, a town planning expert.
Walia said this stretch the most well guarded one, with cops visible at all crossings, but they are rarely seen in action. “Most of the time, they remain a mute spectator, even if they see a commuter blatantly skipping the traffic signal or flouting traffic norm,” he added.
He said people too lack traffic sense. “They don’t hesitate in violating traffic rules even in the presence of cops. This has also become one of the main reasons behind pathetic traffic condition,” he added.
“There’s a growing incidence of motorists making a ‘u’ turn (in the same lane) if they sense traffic congestion ahead. It is more visible on the flyover in front of Picup Bhawan. This further adds to the traffic chaos,” he stated.
However, another expert Dinesh Srivastav cited the sluggish implementation of new drives for poor traffic management. “Why depend on the cops always, especially in the era of e-challans and Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS),” said Srivastav.
He said it’s been more than three years since efforts to streamline traffic system, under Smart City project, are on but the outcome is zero. “The ITMS, under which traffic lights and cameras (installed at crossings) are operated with sensors, is programmed to immediately issues e-challans to those who
skip the signal. But all this still seems to be a distant dream for a fast developing city like Lucknow,” he added.
A few experts also highlighted engineering flaws, which they said, could lead to grave consequences. Among the few, the drop of the leftmost bridge on Lohia Path that starts from Picup Bhawan tops the list.
“It’s a purely unpractical design. The bridge drops just a few metres ahead of Lohia Park crossing. The speeding vehicles, coming down the slope of the bridge could collide with the ones moving on the adjacent road (that intend to turn left at Lohia Crossing),” said Prashant Dubey, a daily commuter.
Though an adjacent service lane has been made that passes from under the over bridge and ends at the Lohia crossing but commuters tend to miss it due to lack of proper signage.
“I never saw this alternate route despite passing through this stretch on all working days,” said Dubey.
Similarly, another flaw is at the Polytechnic crossing. Commuters coming from Lohia crossing who want to go towards Picup Bhawan and adjacent areas have to take a U turn from a cut just before the Polytechnic crossing. While the cut on the divider allows easy passage, it becomes a tedious job when traffic coming from the opposite direction blocks the U-turn. Had the cut been provided a few meters before, it would have served its purpose well, said experts.
The constant VIP movement on the Vidhan Bhawan, Raj Bhawan route and from Golf Club crossing towards Indira Gandhi Pratisthan (IGP) and vice versa also affects traffic movement. Normal traffic is stopped to allow the VIP cavalcades. Traffic congestion reoccurs when the road is opened again.
MORE TROUBLE AHEAD
With the Kukrail flyover getting functional soon, the traffic situation on Lohia Path is set to worsen in the days to come. The overbridge will bring in traffic from Aliganj, Mahanagar and nearby areas on to Lohia Path, adding to the congestion.
The Kukrail flyover will be open for public by March. It is expected to increase the load on the road by an average 20,000 to 30,000 passenger car units (PCUs) on the road. These additional vehicles will not only take up space on the section, but will also create new bottlenecks. The worst situation is expected at Samta Mulak crossing.
The roundabout at Samta Mulak, the biggest on the section along with the ones at Lohia crossing, 1090, and Golf Club, plays a pivotal role in self regulating traffic movement. But such measures become obsolete in case of high traffic volume.
“As per research, a traffic rotary/ roundabout can carry up to a maximum of 10,000 PCUs. In case of Lohia Path this, number has already been reached. The traffic volume on this road at present exceeds 30,000 PCUs,” said Diwakar Tripathi, former vice-chairman of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA).
Under such conditions, planners have to devise new means to control traffic. One such measure, according to Tripathi, is construction of cloverleaf interchange.
The road intersection technique allows vehicles coming from all directions to move to another direction without crossing any traffic.
“A cloverleaf interchange is proposed at Samta Mulak crossing. This will reduce the burden on the roundabout here and improve traffic movement on the road,” said Tripathi.
Besides the cloverleaf interchange, experts also suggest improvement in traffic management on the section. Currently, commuters coming from Hazratganj via Dalibagh road and Bhainsa Kund use the old Gomti Barrage. This slows traffic movement on the barrage and leads to congestion near Samta Mulak crossing.
For long, local administration has planned to make the barrage road one way, but the plan is yet to be implemented.
Likewise, the traffic movement from Hazratganj towards Gomti Nagar also causes congestion at 1090 roundabout.