DIG Traffic and SSPs Interact with Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Traffic Issues

14-06-2023: On the request of President Chamber of Commerce & Industry Sh. Arun Gupta, DIG Traffic Sh. Shridhar Patil, IPS visited Chamber House along with SSP Traffic Rural Sh. Vijay Kumar and SSP Traffic City Sh. Faisal Qureshi and interacted with the Sr. Members of the Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

While expressing gratitude and thanks to Shridhar Patil, IPS, DIG Traffic for sparing his valuable time to interact with Office Bearers and Sr. Members of CCI said that our Transporters, Traders, and Industrialists are facing a lot of problems after unloading their trucks at Srinagar and proceeding back to Jammu and request for instituting appropriate measures for its streamlining. The condition of the highway and the bottlenecks there too, are known to the administration and stakeholders, yet some appropriate measures will be helpful for the free flow of downward traffic.

The upward and downward movements of load carriers are on alternate days. The upward convoy movement from Jammu to Srinagar is regulated forward from the Nagrota-Jajjar Kotli-Udhampur-Jakahani barriers.  In such an arrangement the trucks reach their the destination next day morning in a smooth manner.

However, after unloading are made to halt for a day at Mir Bazar. Thereafter the trucks are also made to halt at Bonigaum and in this way, it takes 8 to 10 days to cover the distance of 20-25 km from Mir Bazar to Qazikund. Further due to landslides unsuitable road conditions and inclement weather, they are forced to halt at Vulnerable stretches. Which adds another 2-3 days in the timeline.

 In addition, another reason for piling of the trucks at the above barriers is that the trucks for down movement are lined up and not allowed to break the queue, but the local trucks with Registration Digits (of 01) /drivers are reported to be proceeding from the wrong side and from numerous lateral/feeder roads to the new tunnel, thus bypassing all the barriers. Such trucks when reaching the New Tunnel get preferential way down where the trucks are released in a phased manner due to the road/tunnel capacity/safety limitations, while the queues at the barriers keep on getting longer.

It may be appreciated that in such a scenario, all of this activity is creating a cascading and debilitating effect on the turnaround time and recycling of the trucks, is considered avoidable wastage of man hours, underutilization of precious human and mechanical resources, and at the micro level, it translates into undue administrative and physical inconvenience to the truckers, financial loss to individual drivers as also to business establishments; all impacting the business environment negatively.

We further suggest that the ONLY empty trucks of 12/14 tyres category be permitted to take a detour from Shopian via the Mughal Road onto Jammu to partially address the situation. This arrangement was in place in the year 2022-23 but no more allowed now.

Sh. Arun Gupta also pointed out that the Amarnath Yatra is going to start from 1^st July 2023.  We request that the Transport Department should not disturb and penalize pilgrims and tourists during Amarnath Yatra Period.  We further request not to penalize those who are making efforts to facilitate the pilgrims by way of providing them with eating facilities etc.

During interaction Sh. Arun Gupta also said that with the construction of the flyover from Canal Road to Muthi the businessmen of the Canal Road are feeling harassed as the traffic police did not allow the vehicles of the customers to be parked outside their shops/establishments rather they immediately penalize the customers for parking their vehicles there. We request to come up with a solution so that the traffic in this area plies without any hurdle and also the customers who visit there for shopping purposes get suitable parking facility for their vehicles.

While reacting Sh. Shridhar Patil, IPS DIG Traffic said that the issue regarding the movement of Commercial vehicles from Jammu to Srinagar and from Srinagar to Jammu shall be resolved within 2-3 days and the issues of Amarnath Yatra and Canal Road Parking will be resolved after discussions with the concerned officers on duties in these areas.

Sh. Arun Gupta also lauded the commendable work done by  Sh. K.K. Gandhi our member and a renowned artist(Painter). During his stay as an artist in residence in Hallein, Salzburg Austria he was chosen as a peace messenger in recognition of his work and he received a sculptor of a bronze dove that represents peace from the silent night museum Hallein  Salzburg Austria. Sh. Arun Gupta congratulated Mr. K.K. Gandhi on receiving this peace dove(Gruber Taube)  that will travel across India and finally reach back to Austria during the pre-Christmas season.  Today Mr. Gandhi handed over the peace dove to Sh. Ajay Mathur, President Taj Ma Hallein(NGO)in Chamber House.