Traffic Congestion: Gauhati High Court Seeks Action Taken Status From Dispur

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has asked the State government and seven other authorities concerned to submit by September 13, 2019, the status of action taken by them to solve the problem of traffic congestion in Guwahati.

In 2016, advocate Rita Das Mazumdar filed a PIL in the High Court on the ever-worsening traffic congestion in Guwahati. In the last hearing of the PIL, the High Court was not at all satisfied with the measures taken by the government and seven other authorities to solve the problem of traffic congestion in Guwahati. Gauhati High Court did ask the government and other authorities as to why it had failed to ensure smooth traffic movement in Guwahati even as there are a number of laws to control traffic.

The PIL specifically wanted to know, among other issues, –

(i) as to why city buses in Guwahati do not ply on the routes allotted to them, (ii) why do city buses stop here and there even as there are regular stops for them, (iii) why the government and other authorities cannot ensure smooth running of city buses in the city even as there are several laws to control traffic, and (iv) why are the few footbridges in the city bereft of escalators making it difficult for women and old people to use them?

Significantly, on September 20, 2018 the High Court bench had a meeting with the authorities concerned and asked them to prepare an action plan to solve the problem of traffic congestion in Guwahati. Almost a year has elapsed since then, but no action has been taken towards than end as yet. This has prompted the High Court to ask the government and seven other authorities to submit the action taken status by September 13, 2019 to solve the problem of traffic congestion in Guwahati.

The crux of traffic congestion in Guwahati lies in the reality that the metropolitan city has as many as 20 per cent of the total number of vehicles plying in the State. The 98,581 vehicles registered in the city from April 2018 to March 2019 corroborate this statement. The surge in the number of vehicles in the city puts pressure on the roads that have few alternative ones, and are with limited or no scope for widening.

What adds to the problem is the State police force’s understaffed traffic branch, which also has a few staff with the habit of bunking off their duty. According to a survey report, 63 per cent of traffic police personnel in the city attend duty for 10 to 15 hours, 30 per cent attend duty for 8-10 hours and 7 per cent attend duty for more than 15 hours a day.

No supervision of traffic police personnel on duty is seen, and as such many traffic police personnel report for duty and then disappear. Efficient management is an essential part of traffic control. The higher-ups in Guwahati traffic branch have a lot to learn from their Kolkata counterpart to ease traffic congestion in Guwahati.

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