Festive rush brings traffic snarl-ups to Ludhiana roads

City roads have started witnessing traffic jams with the beginning of the festival season. The movement of traffic on several roads has slowed down causing huge inconvenience to the commuters.

With the traffic police department finding its strength depleted, the cops may find it tough to manage the chaos on roads. Even the lack of any concrete action by the Municipal Corporation against the roadside vendors and encroachments by shopkeepers is adding fuel to the fire.

On Friday, a major traffic jam was noticed on the Civil Lines road (stretch from Rajpura chowk to Pavillion chowk), road outside Police Lines, railway road, Chaura Bazaar, Police Division Number 3 chowk, CMC road, Field Ganj, Saban Bazaar, Meena Bazaar, Karimpura Bazaar, Jassian road and PAU road leading to Saggu chowk, Ghumar Mandi, Rani Jhansi road etc. Commuters remained stuck on these roads for a long time.

“Today in the afternoon, when I was going towards Fountain chowk in my car, I got stuck outside the Police Lines. There was a long queue of vehicles. Since the road is narrow, vehicles from both sides got stuck on the road. The road was declared one-way by the traffic police but vehicles from the wrong side had been entering which became the cause of a major traffic jam. Some vehicles had to turn back and take a detour to reach their destination,” said Ravinder Sharma, a city-based garment trader.

Sharma added that despite the movement of cops on this road due to the presence of Police Lines, there was no traffic policeman deployed here to ensure that flow of traffic remains smooth. There is a need to deploy a permanent traffic cop here to prevent road jams, he said.

Amandeep Kaur, a resident of Gill road, said that she along with her friends had come for shopping in old city areas like Chaura Bazaar, Clock Tower and some markets near the Railway road. Since she came on Activa scooters along with her friends, they had to crawl slowly through the traffic jam in these markets. There was no space for parking. “Although these roads are quite wide and have enough space to bear the load of vehicles, encroachments by shopkeepers and roadside vendors have turned these roads narrow. There were no traffic cops present to man the traffic. We had come to finish our shopping in an hour or two but it took us almost four hours, thanks to the traffic jams,” added Amandeep Kaur.

“I do not hold the traffic police or Municipal Corporation responsible for this mess but responsibility also lies with the residents who usually park their vehicles on the road in a haphazard manner which creates traffic bottlenecks and jams. People should also understand their role and responsibility,” said Raghav Arora, a city resident.

Meanwhile, during a visit to Pindi Street, vehicles were seen parked on both sides of the road and there was bare minimum space for even pedestrians to cross.