Apple transportation season begins, drones to be used for monitoring traffic

Tribune News Service
Shimla, July 14

Drones will be used for monitoring traffic during apple transportation season commencing tomorrow. As many as 220 police personnel will be deployed at bottleneck to ensure the smooth transportation of apples.

“A traffic plan has been chalked out and arrangements made keeping in view that a bumper apple. Around 2 crore apple boxes will be transported from Shimla district which implies that over 40,000 trucks, besides pickups, will ply on the road till October 15,” said SP Shimla Mohit Chawla.

Single point reference number 8894728012 has been issued for the public to report their grievances. Apple-related problems of growers, transporters, traders or others would be addressed, he said. The police force will be reduced and strengthened as per rush. Moreover, awareness camps will also be organised for truck drivers to reduce the chances of accidents.

The city traffic will not be disturbed as the trucks would take Dhalli-Shoghi road, the SP said. Vulnerable points have been discussed with other stakeholders. The Fagu – Chharabra road and Mehli road will be the halting points in cases of traffic congestion.

Thousands of trucks ply from the apple belt in Shimla – Jubbal Kotkhai, Theog, Chopal, Rohru subdivisions and Kinnaur district during the season. August 15 to September 15 is the peak time for transportation of the crop. A total of 77,563 vehicles crossed the Shoghi border (38,355 Solan to Shimla and 39,208 Shimla to Solan) from July 5 till July 14 morning.

The Shimla administration has made adequate preparations for the marketing of apple during the ongoing season. A control room has been set up at Fagu and additional control rooms are set up at Shoghi, Giripul, Narkanda, Fediz Pul, Balag and Kudu.

Deputy Commissioner, Shimla Aditya Negi, who reviewed the preparations, said SDMs have already held discussions with truck and pickup owners and the growers would face no problem as regard to availability of trucks.

The control rooms would be activated from tomorrow and facility of making I-cards, counting of apple boxes, gathering statistics of the movement of trucks would be available through software. All roads in apple belt have been repaired, Negi added.