Dear Editor,
Traffic problem is a condition on road networks that occur as road use increases. The major contributing factor to this problem is extreme occupancy of the road by ever increasing number of vehicles leading to traffic congestions. The volume of the traffic for space is greater than available roads. Due to traffic jams, there is wastage of time as it is non productive activity, delay in reaching the destination and most important one cannot forecast travel time.
The Jammu already facing traffic jam problem has been fully gripped now by the Darbar Move and we the people of Udhampur town think not twice , thrice but number of times to visit Jammu in their own vehicle. The Udhampur being second largest city after Jammu is not better than Jammu in the field of traffic problems. Frequent accidents on rural roads claiming many precious lives, remain in hot news for few days with tall claims by spot visiting authorities of improvement in road conditions, replacing of old vehicles, vigorous checking of traffic violators, enhancing the number of bus services but the commoner has to beat the old track once the dust settles down. It has been surveyed in Udhampur that the number of Matadors, which contribute 85 per cent to the traffic violations ply in excess numbers from Rehamble to Sailan Talab. In the race to pick up maximum number of passengers, the drivers mostly in the age group of twenty to twenty-five years, un-educated and from rural folk, drive their vehicles un-checked in such a rash, negligent manner and in such a high speed as they have to extinguish fire somewhere. This route is required to be de-congested and these Matadors are required to be pressed into services at following routes witnessing always plying heavily over loaded vehicles:-
o Sailan-Talab to Battal- Ballian,
o Bus- Stand to Chery-Swail, Kawa via Udhampur Railway Station.
o Slathia-Chowk to Udhampur Railway Station via Sangoor.
o Bus-Stand to Ramnagar Railway-Station via Venus-Chowk.
o Bus-Stand to Airforce-Station via Sailan-Talab.
o Bus-Stand to Garnai via Rehamble.
o Bus-Stand to Garnai-Lotta via Airforce Mess road.
The rural routes such as Udhampur- Chenani Sudhmahadev, Udhampur Kaldi-Bletar, Udhampur-Jaganoo, Udhampur -Ramnagar within and onwards, Udhampur-Pancheri Lander, Udhampur-Moungari, Udhampur-Jandrah and many others required to be provided extra buses as well as Matadors to cater to the needs of the daily travelers to save them from loss of human lives.
Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
Udhampur.