Meetings on traffic woes fail to bear fruit

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 31

Even if the traffic problem is grave in the city, there is hardly any effort visible to control the menace due to which residents are suffering.

The situation is reflected in meetings also that are held at the DC office to check the issue and highlight problems related to it.

In the same way, a road safety meeting was held today which yielded no result, as always.

Notably, the last road safety meeting was held five months ago. Issues which were discussed in that meeting are still there. In the today’s meeting, which was headed by the Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, issues regarding overloading, lack of zebra crossings, change of school timings, no parking zones and encroachments were discussed. These were the same old issues which never got resolved.

He said while addressing the meeting said there was no need to discuss points in the meeting if there was no implementation. Only discussions were not going to get anywhere.

Some orders were given to the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), traffic police, Municipal Corporation officers by the Deputy Commissioner. However, road safety committee members hardly expected any outcome from the meeting.

In the meeting, the DC ordered the change of school timings of educational institutions falling in Mai Heeran Gate, Sodal Road, Defence Colony and Guru Nanak Mission Road.

He said the timings of schools on these roads had been changed to ensure that bottlenecks created due to the traffic flow due to opening and closing of schools could be checked.

Meanwhile, discussing another agenda, the Deputy Commissioner asked the Secretary, RTA, to take strict action against overloading vehicles in the city.

Sharma said it needs to be checked with a heavy hand so that traffic nuisance was checked. Sharma said exemplary punishment must be ensured for the overloading vehicles.

On another issue, the Deputy Commissioner also asked the Police Department to make sure that a working traffic helpline number was made available to the public. He said this would ensure that violators of traffic were nailed by active public participation.

Sharma said no parking zones must be identified in the city to ensure that the traffic was streamlined in the city.

The Deputy Commissioner also asked the Municipal Corporation authorities to construct a road divider from PNB Chowk to Bhagwan Valmiki Chowk (Jyoti Chowk) for a smooth flow of traffic.

He also asked the MC get the traffic lights installed at Guru Ravidass Chowk and T-Point operational within a week to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic.

Sharma also asked the MC authorities to expedite the construction/repair of key roads so that commuters did not face any problem.