Traffic chaos continues to jam roads in Patiala, authorities fail to act
AN HT SERIES ON BUILDING A BETTER CITY TOGETHER
PATIALA: Authorities’ big plans to ease traffic congestion in the city seem to have produced no results. Even as the 25th traffic awareness week rally was recently launched in Patiala with much fanfare, the streets and lanes of the royal city continue to be jammed with uncontrollable traffic while those violating traffic rules move around freely right under the nose of the administration.
Though the traffic police have recruited more staff and now have adequate manpower, they have failed to streamline the flow of traffic in the city as traffic snarls have become a daily sight.
A cursory look at the traffic scenario shows that there are many vulnerable spots in the city, which have either no police deployment or if they have any cops on duty, the latter fail to manage the traffic.
The jam prone areas include railway station gate, Twakli Mod, YPS Chowk, Sirhind Road, Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib road, Tripari area, the road from Shera Wala gate to Adalat Bazaar, fountain chowk and 22 number phatak road.
Talking to HT, Local residents rued that due to authorities’ apathy, the city’s traffic scenario has botched up over the years.
They alleged that the traffic police adopts a lenient attitude towards violators of traffic rules. Instead of penalizing them, they let them go scot free after violating traffic laws right under their nose.
The severity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that unlicensed teenagers continue to drive rashly without helmets risking their lives and posing threat to others’ while
TRAFFIC POLICE HAVE RECRUITED MORE STAFF BUT FAILED TO STREAMLINE THE WAY THE VEHICLES RUN IN CITY
cops deployed outside their schools remain mute spectators.
The condition inside the interiors of the city, especially in the narrow lanes of the markets, makes the situation more daunting for the commuters and pedestrians as people from all directions continue to bustle around.
Devinder Singh,a resident of Sirhind colony said, “Accidents have become a common site on the Sirhind road as people tend to drive at a high speed on this singlelane road as they do on the national highway. Lack of traffic lights, presence of speed breakers and no deployment of traffic cops at several places makes the situation more grim.” Several residents complained that after school and office hours, long jams are witnessed across the city.
However, the traffic authorities claimed that all violators are being penalized. They said during the year 2013, they had collected an aggregate fine of over Rs two crore by issuing 50,000 challans.
Traffic inspector Hardeep Singh said, “We have been issuing challans to the violators. However, traffic chaos are caused by the people who fail to follow laws.”
He added the police are conducting traffic awareness camps in schools and educating students about the laws and norms of traffic.