By H H Mohrmen
Traffic is no longer a Shillong only issue; chronic traffic jam is a major problem in the state and it is something that everybody has experienced even in other cities and towns too. The question is how can we solve this problem which has crippled the function of almost every town and city in Meghalaya? When it takes a person one hour to travel from Sawlad to Rani Motors or Jelly shop and it takes a little more than an hour to travel the whole journey from Jowai to Sawlad on the Shillong-Jowai road then, we have a serious problem here.
Governments come and go. In the past there were suggestions of constructing flyovers and even monorails to ease traffic congestion in Shillong. The above suggestion or any suggestion involving land will not succeed in Meghalaya and we all know why. There was a plan to introduce cable cars and this plan also met the same fate because of the same issue. Perhaps in the future some will come up with brilliant idea of introducing flying cars in the city, but parking space will still be the problem. The truth is the plan to construct flyovers and monorails did not take off, because of the peculiar land tenure system of Meghalaya.
It reminds me of the trip in which we were to attend the inauguration of the Lechkha Hydro electric project by the then President of India Abdul Kalam. I hitched a ride with the then MLA ma Mihsalan Suchiang and throughout the journey from Jowai to Pdengchakap, a man of few words that he is, while driving his old rickety jeep, he only joined us in the discussion once. We discussed the lack of development in the state and Suchiang said that the land holding system that we have in Meghalaya is one major hurdle to bringing development in the state.
In the future too all visions and plans to solve chronic traffic congestion in the state which involves land will suffer the same fate, because nobody will willingly part with their precious possession especially in town and cities. With no scope for widening the existing road and no hope for other alternatives to prevent traffic snarls in the different parts of the state, this leaves us with only one solution and that is to make the best use of what we have now.
There is a saying that one cannot solve the problem with the same minds that created the predicament in the first place. The point is the traffic police will have to think anew or perhaps come up with out- of- the- box solutions to solve this problem. The cause of the traffic snarls is because of the increasing numbers of vehicles plying on the roads whose size has remained constant. This is something we all know. And the only way to reduce the numbers of vehicles on the road is to encourage people to used public transport.
I prefer using public transport and I was surprised to see that instead of encouraging people to travel on public conveyances, the traffic police decided to do otherwise. On reaching Shillong all by-lanes on the road from Jowai to Shillong were closed for taxis and public transport and way was given only for private vehicles. If we continue to give right of way only to private vehicles then how can we expect people to use public transport. If a private vehicle can take a shortcut, but taxis have to do a detour, then naturally I will use my private vehicle to save time. This is what I mean by the fact that we need change in mindset especially of those who are involved in controlling traffic in the towns and city.
In countries like the US, car owners are fined if they do not do car pooling especially if they are travelling during the peak hours. We need to come up with similar solutions to solve this chronic problem. Even for school duty the government should insist that schools provide school buses to ferry students and if parents insist on using private vehicles to drop their kids to school then they need to share or pool cars to reduce the numbers of vehicles plying on the roads.
It is not only true that there is no scope of making new roads or widening of the existing roads in the different cities and towns but the fact that rich people have this penchant to buy big sports and utility cars is a major problem. I mean, why does one need to drive a four wheel in the city? The point is the government needs to enhance road tax on big vehicles because they are using much of the space of the already narrow road.
The other solution is that the government come up with plans to construct parking space or terminals at every entry point to the cities or towns to ease flow of traffic into the city. Vehicles coming from rural areas can park in the terminal or car park meant for them and then they use public transport to commute to and from the city. Take Shillong as an example. For people from the two districts of Jaintia hills and Mawkynrew Block, the area at Lad Smit will be a good location, and there is already a bus terminal in Mawiong for vehicles coming from Ri Bhoi district and Assam. If similar locations can be identified for vehicles coming from South and West Khasi hills and the Pynurla and Sohra area of the East Khasi hills, it might solve the traffic problem of Shillong to an extent.
Similar plans should be made for other towns and cities in the state and this will help immensely in controlling the flow of traffic. To draw people to use public transport, the need of the hour is to increase and improve public transport systems in the towns and cities and give right of way for the public transport. To attract people to use public transport the government also needs to improve the condition of the buses to shuttle passengers in the towns and cities. The buses should be comfortable and well maintained and the person who mans the buses should be trained to have a cordial relationship with the passengers.
The other suggestion is that some sections of the towns or city centres can be made into car free zones to encourage people to walk or cycle. In Jowai maybe the Iawmusiang area can be declared as no vehicle zone. This will make people walk or cycle which will help them maintain their health.
The point is to discourage the use of private vehicles as much as possible. Hence the government should charge hefty entry fees on any car plying in the city and town centres. The other alternative is also to increase parking fees in the congested areas.
In the near future there will be a major traffic problems when New Shillong Township begins operating in full steam. The problem is of linking the old Shillong to the proposed new Shillong. Right now the only link that connects the old and the new Shillong is via Polo which is like bottleneck which connects the two parts of the town. The state needs to come up with lanes and by lanes to connect the two parts of the city and Polo should be avoided.
In a hills state like our this is planning for the future that we can make for our towns and cities. And with the kind of land tenure system that we have there is not much that the government or the traffic police can do to control the flow of traffic.
This is a difficult task but not an impossible one. The government only needs to take a bold decision otherwise it will be impossible for the police to man the traffic in our state.