Encroachments eat up space on slip roads in Amritsar

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, May 10

Unavailability of slip roads, a major component of the surface infrastructure for commuters in most city areas because of factors like illegal encroachment by nearby shopkeepers or misuse for parking of vehicles is making travel troublesome.

The slip have not been constructed in many areas of the city which puts the commuters in peril. The missing and encroached slip roads are proving costly for the commuters as they have to keep waiting for the road ahead to clear.

The basic objective of these slip roads is to make the roads safe and trouble-free. The idea behind the slip roads is to allow the commuters to move out to their left or right even when the traffic signals are red. It usually helps in decreasing the queues which allows vehicles to cross the intersection in less time.

Even as the slip roads are available alongside the entire stretch of the GT road from Guru Harkrishan Public School to India Gate, a large portion of it is being used by the encroachers and for illegal parking. The residents stated that if these slip roads are made available for the slow moving traffic, this would decrease the rush on main roads.

While the slip roads on many major stretches are missing, the administration installed plastic traffic cones to demarcate the passage for drivers so that they can take a left turn without waiting for the traffic signal to turn green. In the absence of any enforcement, the vehicles which have to go straight can be seen blocking the passage. As per the surface transport rules, all four directions of a road must ideally have four concrete structures of about two-feet high to distinguish the slip roads from the main road.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said slip roads have been demarcated using plastic cones at most of the traffic intersections. He said these are still missing at places and necessary provisions would be be made for this soon.