Governance
Traffic woes continue as snow occupies roads, commuters take hours to reach destinations
At many busy places, only one lane is motorable as snow occupies road-sides
Srinagar: While snow continues to occupy most of the roadssides in Kashmir, people have faced huge problems due to the heavy traffic mess across the valley leaving people in lurch.
AtHundreds of vehicles were stranded on roads for hours on Monday as the Jammu and Kashmir administration have failed to clear snow from roadsides leaving narrow path for vehicles to pass.
On Monday, government as well as private offices resumed their work after witnessing heavy snowfall last week.
However, people continue to face immense problems while reaching workplaces as roads were blocked with snow resulting in Jam-packed roads everywhere.
In Srinagar roads which witness heavy traffic, like Jahangir Chowk, Rambagh, Chanpora, Ma road, Karanagar, SMHS hospital road, Safa Kadal, Dalgate, Nowpora, Khanyar, Saida Kadal, Hazratbal, Nawakadal, Hyderpora, Sanatnagar, Tengpora, Bemina, and HMT, remianed jam packed.
“I left my shop at around 5 in the evening and reached home in Khanyar at around 8 in the night. In this bone chilling cold it took me 3 hours to travel 4 km due to the heavy traffic jam everywhere. Snow has not been cleared from the roads which resulted in traffic mess,” said Zahid Ahmad, a resident of Khanyar, adding that administration in Kashmir has completely failed in giving better services to people.
“In such pathetic situation, if an ambulance carrying an emergency patient has to wait hours in traffic jam, the patient will die on way to the hospital,” he said.
Faizan Ahmad who was travelling to the hospital in his car said, “I left office at around 4.30 in the evening and had to travel to SMHS hospital to see my grandmother who had suffered a brain hemorrhage. I got stuck in traffic jam from MA Road to the SMHS hospital. I reached hospital at around 6 pm. There was a huge traffic jam across Srinagar due to the accumulation of snow on roads.”
He said that government is active only on twitter but on ground people face immense problems.
In south Kashmir, almost every road witnessed traffic jam because only one vehicle passed at a time as snow have occupied major portion of roads leaving a narrow lanes for vehicle.
“Even after a week of heavy snowfall roads continue to be occupied by the snow due to which people mostly students faced problems while reaching their tuition centers. Only one vehicle passed at a time because roads are narrow as snow has not been cleared yet. Normally, the distance one would cover in 20 minutes took hours to cover,” said a resident of Pulwama.
The roads that witnessed heavy traffic mess in south Kashmir include, Main Chowk Pulwama, Murran Chowk Pulwama, Levdora — Mir Bazar along Jammu and Srinagar national highway, Lower Munda toll post along, Mehandi Kadal Anantnag town, Wanpoh Anantnag, Qaimoh Khudwani Kulgam, Bon Bazar Shopian, Four Way Chowk Shopian, and Batpora Shopian.
Similar traffic mess was witnessed in north Kashmir as well with students of Baramulla colleges blaming government for not clearing snow due to which they missed their class.
A group of Kashmir Government Poly-technique college students who have to travel to Baramulla college of technical education for a training session said that they witnessed a huge traffic jam on way to college due to which they missed their class.
“Even after week, snow has not been cleared from the roads across Kashmir. We left from Srinagar at 8.30 in the morning and we reached Baramulla College at around 1 in afternoon because traffic jam was everywhere starting from HMT. Our class is schedule at 11 but due to the traffic jam we could not reach college on time. Government has failed to clear the roads for hassle free traffic movement,” said Mehak Wani, one of the students.
Meanwhile, heart wrenching episode took place Monday in south Kashmir’s Shopian district where a father died while carrying his son, battling with cancer, home on a cot through a snow filled road.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, P. K. Pole has said that it is the highest snowfall in recent years.
“With the machines available, priorities are fixed. We have restored all roads of Tehsil and Block level. Remaining village roads restored to a large extent in all districts, except higher reaches of Shopian and Budgam,” Pole said.
“So far as the vehicular traffic in Srinagar is concerned, we see jam in even summer. We will shift machinery to lifting and transporting of this snow lying on road side as soon as restoration of connectivity in all remaining areas,” he claimed.
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