Passengers spend night on the highway; Shortage of essentials in city
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The traffic jam along the Shillong-Guwahati road which started from Friday evening and continued right up to Saturday morning has led to acute shortage of vegetables, fish and chicken in the various market of the city.
It is learnt that many of the vehicles which were carrying vegetables, fish and chicken were stuck in the highway since Friday evening.
The Iewduh market and other subsidiary markets around the city had no fresh vegetables that usually come from Ri Bhoi district and from Assam. Shops selling dressed chicken ran out of stock. The standard reply was that dressed chicken coming from the farms in Ri Bhoi could not make it on time.
But the worst nightmare was experienced by passengers who landed at Guwahati in the evening and were to travel to Shillong. They spent the night in the taxis they travelled in and many were cold and hungry since they were not prepared for this eventuality.
Many others missed their flights and trains on account of the traffic jam.
When contacted, Ri-Bhoi district Superintendent of Police (SP) Claudia Lyngwa informed that the traffic jam started at around 2 am somewhere at Ryndangbriew area near Mawlai Mawiong.
The traffic jam occurred due to the bursting of the tyres of a truck at Ryndangbriew and also due to the accident of a truck somewhere near Marten in Mawlai Mawiong, Lyngwa said.
She said that the problem aggravated in the morning with many small vehicles coming to Shillong and others bound for Guwahati all converging to add to the traffic halt. Wrong and reckless overtaking is of course considered one of the worst reasons adding to traffic standstill, Lyngwa said.
Meanwhile, Additional SP (City) Herbert Lyngdoh said that the main reason for the traffic jam is the huge increase number of trucks plying in the highway.
“With countless numbers of trucks plying on the highway it has become difficult to keep the highway clear,” Lyngdoh said.
He further said that there is no other option but to allow the trucks to ply throughout the day otherwise if they hold the truck the situation would be worse.
Meanwhile citizens of Shillong have taken this repeated and incurable traffic mess very seriously and are meeting on Monday to see what steps they will take.