Berhampur: Traffic snarls in Berhampur town have marred the civic life. Despite regular sittings of district Road Safety Committee here, corrective measures taken up by local police and the efforts made by civic authorities have yielded no success, a report said.
The local administration has installed Integrated Traffic Management Systems (ITMSs) at strategic locations like Gate Bazaar Chhak, PVN Rao Petrol Pump Chhak, Tata Benz Chhak, Kamapalli and Court Peta Chhak of the town, for effective traffic control.
In addition to this, Berhampur civic authorities have also put up CCTV cameras for better surveillance at other strategically significant spots to take stock of traffic violations within the town.
Ever-increasing traffic movement on narrow roads, illegal parking of passenger buses on roadside which are plying within and through the town and uncontrolled movement of buses of educational institutions are said to be the main causes of traffic snarls here.
Moreover, many development projects were taken up years back for effective traffic control as well as for providing better parking facilities in Badabazar area, which have been pushed to limbo.
Likewise, roadsides which were dug for the repairing works taken up for new bus stand have been left halfway and are causing utmost difficulties to the commuters, local denizens alleged.
Lack of proper coordination between pavement walkers and vehicle drivers, inadequate public awareness on traffic rules and rash driving by youngsters are causing accidents, they added.
Reacting to this, Commissioner of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) Chakravarti Singh Rathore said, “We have taken up several development projects for effective traffic control in the town, including five ITMSs and 70 CCTV cameras for surveillance.”
In a similar vein, traffic police station IIC Sunil Behera said, “Efforts have already been initiated to control the traffic snarls at new bus stand area. Various projects have been chalked out for permanent solution of the traffic problems in future days.”
Worthy to note, 596 road accidents have occurred at different places of the district over past ten months in which 313 persons have died. Figuratively speaking, 79 persons died on NH-16 alone, 54 persons died on other national highways (NHs), 140 persons died on state highways (SHs) and 40 persons died on district roads, in various road accidents which occurred within this district.
In such a situation, even as local administration imposes heavy penalty on commuters for any traffic violation after implementation of Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019, it turns blind eyes to low quality roads across the town.
Although, violation of traffic rules is being handled by local police, except three-month’s extended relief on documents; nobody seems to bother about the existing traffic snarls.
Given that Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 wanted to deter individuals from violating traffic rules, it has introduced heavy fines for drunken driving, driving without licence, driving without authentic documents, rash and dangerous driving and over-speeding.
PNN
