School buses imperative
SHILLONG: Despite all the odds stacked against them Shillong Traffic Police (STP) continue to put up a brave show. There is little they can do to make things work when everyone else is only complaining but not finding out solutions to make traffic management work better. All that the STP can do is create one-way routes; re-route traffic and get stricter with traffic violators and drivers who overtake even on crowded roads.
Speaking with this reporter, Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem said that everyday several new vehicles are launched into the Shillong streets but the size of the road remains constant with no scope of expanding the existing roads.
Dr RS Bawa commenting on social media said, “Shillong traffic management has only two solutions. One is to adopt the odd even number system and therefore reduce the number two and four wheelers on the roads. Two, widen all the roads.”
The second is easier said than done. In a state which runs with the perennial excuse that no development of any kind can take place since “land belongs to the people,” expanding the road by acquiring the land of private citizens many of whom have encroached on the road is a tall order that no Government can experiment with.
A private citizen who wants to retain anonymity says, “Unless some stringent laws are passed to compulsorily dismantle shops and houses that have encroached on the road, in the same manner that the Government of Assam under Prafulla Mahanta did on the GS Road, Shillong will reach a breaking point if it has not already done so.
That these crucial issues finds no mention in successive assembly sessions shows how far removed the elected representatives are from the problem of the common man.
Recently the STP rerouted traffic at Fire Brigade Point. Since then the place has become more chaotic than before. Earlier the SP Traffic used to be seen supervising traffic at main junctions. These days the work is entrusted to the Additional SP who is monitoring traffic across the city. But he is taking on an insurmountable task.
School hours are worse with thousands of vehicles converging on the streets. Elite schools have consistently resisted the idea of school buses for their students. Can Government allow these schools to have their way at the cost of complete traffic breakdown?