Increasing vehicles on city roads a cause of concern

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 14

The royal city of Patiala, which was once known for its grandeur and considered to be amongst the most peaceful and less congested places in the state due to the absence of any major industrial sector, is growing at a fast pace as far as the vehicular traffic is concerned.

With the newly-found need for the speedier transport, district residents have added nearly five lakh vehicles in the past one-and-a-half decade to the total number of vehicles.

Since the beginning of the PB11 series, specifically for Patiala, in 1989, the number of registered vehicles is around eight lakh, and of these, around five lakh vehicles have been registered in the past 15 years. This includes the vehicles registered by the District Transport Office and the SDM office as the SDMs also had the right to register vehicles till 2012.

The number of vehicle registrations has increased drastically in the past couple of years and it is not just about increased figures. This has certainly put extreme pressure in Patiala and the commuters are feeling the ever increasing congestion as compared to a past few years.

The increasing numbers of vehicles has also put huge pressure on the infrastructure as the city is yet not ready for the onslaught of the vehicles. There are limited parking spaces which are always full to their capacity and one has no option but to park their vehicles on roadside, which often causes extreme inconvenience to the commuters.

In Patiala city, one has to literally struggle to park their vehicles around the main markets such as Dharampura Bazaar, Adalat Bazaar, AC market, Leela Bawan Market, Sher-E-Punjab market, Bhupindra road, Tripri market and Lahori Gate, which is a famous shoppers’ point not just for the district residents, but witnessed heavy footfall from the nearby districts of Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur and Ambala.

Moreover, other prime locations such as Bhupindra road, Leela Bhawan, Chhoti Baradari and YPS Market are facing traffic woes, which have become a cause of concern for the traffic police also.

Saurabh Goyal, who runs a shop in Dharampura Bazaar, says the increasing number of vehicles has made it difficult to even enter the market, forget about parking space for four-wheelers. “Even though the administration has stopped the entry of four-wheelers, many continue to bring their cars in the market, causing traffic congestion,” he added.

Lecturer Kirandeep Kaur feels that the Municipal Corporation should construct some multi-storey parking spaces to solve the problem. Moreover, a proper traffic plan needs to be made and strictly implemented to bring the city back in order.

Meanwhile, keeping in view the dearth of parking space, the Patiala Municipal Corporation (MC) has decided to take vacant public land on lease to come up with parking lots.

The corporation’s General House has passed a resolution related to it recently as several chunks of land belonging to defence and other public departments are lying unused in different prime locations. However, nothing concrete has been done so far.