By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 22 Dec: It is an undeniable fact that Dehradun constantly faces frequent traffic jams. Every morning and evening the traffic woes intensify even further. Most major roads in Doon choke with traffic almost every day. This has been the situation for the past several years and, every year, the situation is worsening further. There have been several attempts in the past to come up with traffic management plans by the Police, but all these plans have been implemented on experimental basis and without enough ground work and have failed. Under the plans that have been enforced in the past, some roads have been made one way, some dividers on the major roads are closed and some traffic signals have been installed at many crossings, but the traffic woes remained or even worsened and these plans have often caused more inconvenience to the people rather than resulting in smoother flow of traffic. In addition, absence of a robust public transport system has only added to the woes thus resulting in even more private vehicles being on the road every year.
Yesterday, Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu directed that effective measures be taken to ease traffic woes in the state capital. Now, in order to make the capital’s traffic system smart, the Dehradun RTO of Dehradun has come up with yet another traffic master plan. He claims that, if this plan is implemented, the residents will feel great relief with respect to traffic woes.
As per the Master Plan, the City’s traffic has been divided into two corridors and a semi-circle. As per the Master Plan, e-buses will run on the corridor and small e-buses or CNG buses will operate on the semi circle. E-rickshaws and magic will also permitted to operate on 18 routes of the capital and it would be ensured that these buses are available every 10 minutes.
The new traffic master plan includes a plan to slowly phase out 10 year old diesel autos, city buses and Vikrams running in the city. This plan was presented before Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu at the last meeting. The traffic department claims that the Chief Secretary has given the go ahead for its implementation at the earliest.
The two corridors will be the East-West Corridor which will run from Jhajhra in the West to Raipur in the East, while the North-South Corridor will run from Kuthalgate in Rajpur in the North to Clement Town in the South.
The Semi-Circle will begin at ISBT and go through Garhi Cantt Supply Depot to Ballupur Chowk via Haridwar Bypass, Rispana Bridge, Jogiwala, Ring Road, Raipur and Krishali Chowk. As per the plan, smart electric buses will operate on the routes of all the three corridors. Passengers will be issued prepaid cards which will be valid for one month. Token system will be applicable. This will give them freedom from the hassle of paying daily fare to passengers and also encourage them to avail the Public Transport instead of taking their own vehicles.
As per the master plan, smart parking zones will be made at Kuthalgate, Raipur, Jhajhra and Clement Town. Citizens will be able to get vehicles from every corner of the capital. With the implementation of the master plan, the facility of travel will be available at a very cheap rate. RTO (Administration) Sunil Kumar Sharma said that apart from getting rid of the problem of jams, people will get the facility of public transport on the lines of Chennai, Mumbai and Chandigarh. People will get convenient facilities to commute from one place to another using public transport which will ultimately reduce the pressure of private vehicles on the roads of Doon in the long run.
It however remains to be seen how soon this plan is enforced and how sincerely and how effectively this plan is implemented or whether this plan will also become yet another experimental plan for Dehradun and forgotten soon after.