Malu Kerni
Illegal parking is eating away road space, leading to frequent traffic jams in the city and the men in blue are facing hardship to deal with the situation.
The city has become so congested that people have to look for parking space for vehicles and at several places drivers have created their own unauthorised parkings which results in huge traffic jams. The traffic congestion is emerging as the biggest problem in the city and in the absence of proper management and manpower shortage, traffic police personnel are finding it hard to deal with the situation.
The situation turns even worst during morning and evening hours when the city roads are all packed with cars, buses and two wheelers. Everyone is in a hurry to reach at their prior destinations and at that time these wrongly parked vehicles create mess on the road. Loud horns, use of harsh words are a daily scene.
“The increasing number of vehicles, coupled with limited road infrastructure and paucity of parking space, has been playing havoc with the traffic management in the city. In areas like Parade, Shalamar, Gumat Chowk, Residency Road, Jain Bazaar, Panjtirthi, Purani Mandi, Super Bazaar, Raghunath Bazaar, BC Road, High Court Road and Canal Road, commuters are continuously annoyed with the haphazardly parked vehicles along the roadsides. Already there is a heavy rush of vehicles and these irregularly parked vehicles further add to the chaos,” said Shatrughan Jamwal, a resident of Super Bazaar.
“Traffic congestions in old Jammu city have become a common scene these days. With available road network in the city to take up the ever increasing vehicle population, traffic jams have become order of the day. The volume of traffic has been long generating demand for space far more than what is available now,” said Praveen Sharma, a resident of Purani Mandi.
Further in the absence of any long-term planning, the Jammu Development Authority and Municipal Corporation have failed to create any additional parking space.
Even the plans to build multi-parking structures at the bus stand and Shalimar Chowk and other projects have been struck at the survey level for the past five years.
Ever since the city started expanding, not even a single attempt was made to control the congestion of these areas of Jammu city. According to legal authentication the buildings, shopping complex, shops of immense and throbbing brands which target the youth of the Jammu city must have their own parking spaces. Since there is no specified parking meant for the customers in these shopping centers, the roads are serving the purpose.
The need of the hour is that the concerned authorities should work and prepare a plan to manage traffic problem in the city and should consult the residents in finding a proper solution to the problem.
