Dr. S. Sapru
Periodic reviews and course corrections. Now what has changed during the last 25 years?
1. Population of district Jammu is projected as around 20 lakh as of now (2018) while it was 15.29 lakhs in 2011. To this figure add around 3 lakh migrants from Kashmir and also the hilly terrains of Jammu.
2. With the carving out of four new districts in Jammu Division the land area of Jammu District is reduced from 3097 sq km to 2342 sq km.
3. The population density has increased from 513 persons per sq km in 2001 to 653 persons per sq km in 2011 which is projected to be around 850 at present (2018).
4. The roads have hardly widened. On the contrary they have shrunk as most of the vehicles are parked on the roads thereby impeding the traffic movement.
5. As per the J&K Transport Department records (2017) Jammu District has a total of 6.70 lakh vehicles and two wheelers on its roads out of which we have around 7,000 buses, 8,000 Matadors, 35,000 trucks, 6,500 taxis, 19,000 three-wheelers, 1,60,000 cars, 6,500 jeeps, 415,000 two-wheelers and around 17,000 others.
And on the development side to absorb this expansion/growth what have we attained:-
1. A flyover has been constructed which connects the road from Shakuntala Theater to the Tawi Bridge. This fly over was supposedly constructed to decongest the traffic within the city which has not been possible because no matadors ply on flyover and this fly over is mainly used by small vehicles. The congestion at Jewel Chowk continues.
2. Of late another flyover has been completed which starts from Tawi Bridge and ends on the Gandhi Nagar Road near Women’s College, decongesting perhaps, Bikram Chowk. How I wish the planners had it in their mind that the Satwari Chowk, which is a traffic bottle neck be decongested such that the route to Jammu Airport be cleared. This flyover could have been extended up to Satwari Chowk. Furthermore, even this flyover is not used by Matadors or buses, but only by small vehicles.
3. A Jammu by-pass road has come up which is mainly used by truckers plying to Srinagar.
4. Two more bridges over the river Tawi have been made operational one near Gujjar Nagar and the second near ‘Nehar’. (Connecting Bhagwati Nagar with the Ware house). Unfortunately the planning has been such that the feeder roads to these bridges are very narrow and congested and therefore hardly any traffic is frequented on these bridges.
5. We have added around 4,00,000 two wheelers which cause a traffic mess because they hardly follow any rule.
6. With around 40,000 vehicles (four wheelers and two wheelers) hitting the roads of Jammu every year the situation is going to be grim and pathetic.
The increase in traffic does not commensurate with corresponding increase in infrastructural development/expansion (Roads, Bridges, Flyovers, Parking, Foot paths etc), such as to absorb this enormous increase. Under such a scenario what can the new IGP Traffic do? He cannot change the mindset of the vehicle drivers overnight nor can he provide additional roads or bridges etc. Since he has to manage with what is available to him, the only option available to him is to be strict and perhaps ruthless in handling traffic violators and yet he cannot course correct the damage that has been done over the years. This situation is compatible with a spring under pressure. If, as and when the pressure is released the spring will bounce back with a greater force. It is imperative therefore, to keep the pressure on for a longer time, which may help in the change of attitude, being the only solution to the problem, at present, besides a perfect policy and perspective planning by the government for the development of roads and traffic of Jammu. However, a pertinent question which comes to mind , is also to ask the predecessors of the present IGP Traffic, as to what did they do during their tenure in the Traffic Department.
(Concluded)
(The author is former fellow of the United Nations University)
