It looks Jammu roads have out-grown their utility. Designed for few hundred vehicles today they handle more than a lakh daily. The end result is traffic jams and chaos. The Road Transport and Safety Bill 2014 envisages a safe transport system and ending the saga of bad roads. The Bill also legalises illegal operation by private operators. Private players who obtain contract carriage permits are violating permit conditions and resorting to operate as stage carriages, due to which government faces huge losses. But as far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned it appears the Bill has no locus standi. Come festivities like Rakshabandhan Jammu roads get choked to the maximum with traffic snarls at every road and lane. Saddest part is in all these days the traffic infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the growing number of vehicle population. Today the deficit stands widened with made for few hundred vehicles it is handling thousands at times lakhs causing the unending jams on almost all the main arteries of the city. As far as traffic management is concerned it was worst with no traffic cop visible managing the chaos on the roads. The state of affairs was such a ten-minute journey was unending ordeal of few hours to reach the destination. State Government will have to work for a reliable alternative mode of transport which forces people not to use their personal vehicles thus avoiding rush on roads. Jammu is no exception the phenomena is visible mostly in places where there is no reliable public transport system. Not only this there is quantum jump in registration of new vehicles which has literally burdened the Regional Transport Office (RTO). Jammu will have to find a way out for better traffic management system and an alternative mass transport system to ease the pressure on the roads otherwise days are not far when people will be burning fuel by just sitting on the roads itself and not reaching their destinations like what happened recently in Gurgaon.
