[ad_1]
Tribune News Service
Nikhil Bhardwaj
Ludhiana, September 6
The city is not only known for its industry but also for traffic jams and chaos on its roads. During a survey of the city by The Tribune team, it noticed that Ludhiana has many wide roads but enroachments by shopkeepers and roadside vendors and haphazard parking by residents are disrupting the flow of vehicular traffic on these stretches.
The traffic police, along with the Municipal Corporation (MC), Ludhiana, had also conducted drives to make roads free from any kind of encroachments but due to resistance by shopkeepers or interference of politicians, officials, on many occasions, failed in their attempts.
Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), Traffic, Gurdial Singh, when asked about the traffic police plan to make city roads free from encroachments, said: “The traffic police had been running drives from time to time to make aware and warn shopkeepers and roadside vendors to avoid encroachments so that the traffic could not get disrupted. However, at some markets, people are not following the directives of the traffic police. We are soon starting anti-encroachment drive along with the Municipal Corporation team and intially, some roads will be completely made encroachment-free through awareness and interactions with shopkeepers and vendors. Afterwards, the administration will start taking action against violators.”
The JCP said on Tuesday, traffic police personnel had warned some roadside vendors and shopkeepers near Brown Road who were causing traffic chaos on the stretch. If vendors will not pay heed, action will be taken against them.
“The traffic police do not want to harass vendors who set up their vends on roads and shopkeepers who display their goods outside their shops. We want people to cooperate and ensure that commuters should not face any inconvenience on roads due to traffic chaos. Many times, commuters, who are in some sort of emergency, or ambulances get stuck in traffic jams due to which they face many problems,” said the JCP (Traffic).
Woman died on way to hospital as car stuck in jam
On February 2, 2021, a woman, Ashu Chopra (53), who was suffering from a heart ailment, died in a car while going to a hospital as the vehicle got stuck in a traffic jam at Kucha No 5 in Field Ganj, which is one of the most congested roads due to wrong parking and encroachments. The victim’s husband, Sham Chopra, along with two other persons, tried to clear the traffic to create way for their car but they failed to do so and the woman breathed her last on the road.
Chaos rules wide roads
City has big and wide roads in Chaura Bazaar, Ghumar Mandi and Gurh Mandi. Other wide roads include Haibowal main road, Jassian road, Hambran Road, Mata Rani chowk, Shingar Cinema road, Baba Than Singh Chowk, CMC road, Divison no 3 chowk and Char Khamba road. However, due to encroachments by shopkeepers and unauthorised vendors, the roads literally turn into narrow lanes. Traffic chaos has become a routine thing in these areas. If somebody will visit these places during late or early hours, only then they can see the width of the roads. Interestingly, on some roads shopkeepers themselves allow vendors to set up vends outside their shops as they charge rent from them for the same.
Enroachments removed from 100 roads in 2020
It was in 2020, the then Police Commissioner Rakesh Aggrawal had strictly enforced traffic rules. By issuing warnings and registering FIRs against shopkeepers and vendors, over 100 roads were made encroachment-free in the city, following which traffic on these roads had started running smoothly. Later, the drive was conducted in the old city area, including Chaura Bazaar, Gurh Mandi, Book Market, Field Ganj, Jawahar Nagar Camp and Brown Road, where traffic chaos was a routine affair.
City residents had then thanked the police chief for his initiative due to which they started commuting in a hassle-free manner on many congested roads.
[ad_2]
Source link
