Due to ongoing development works in the city, the pressure to maintain smooth flow of traffic on narrow congested roads has increased significantly for traffic police personnel.
The grave situation has grabbed the attention of Punjab director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, who has asked Ludhiana police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal to strengthen the traffic wing.
At least 50 more police personnel will be deputed to the traffic wing, which will increase its strength from 250 to 300. Traffic police are also taking help from more volunteers to maintain smooth flow of traffic.
Construction of flyovers is currently on at major roads of the city including Ferozepur Road, Pakhowal Road, Ladhowal Bypass from South City and Cheema Chowk, where heavy traffic is witnessed at all times.
The roads have been narrowed due to the ongoing developement projects, and at many places, vehicles are being diverted to service lanes.
{{/usCountry}}The roads have been narrowed due to the ongoing developement projects, and at many places, vehicles are being diverted to service lanes.
{{/usCountry}}“Though the authorities have made diversions on Ferozepur Road, the average speed on the stretch from Bharat Nagar Chowk to Octroi post at Ludhiana-Ferozepur road is just 10 to 15 kilometres per hour. At some points, where traffic is diverted to service lanes, bottlenecks occur,” said Jaspreet Singh, a businessman.
At some places, commuters try to break the lane by overtaking, which aggravates the situation.
“At some locations, police personnel are not present to manage the flow of the traffic, due to staff crunch. They can do little at other points as flow of traffic is irregular,” said Akshay Bhatia, a teacher.
The situation is likely to worsen in the coming day due to foggy conditions and low visibility.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP, traffic) Gurdev Singh said more manpower will help them manage traffic better. He added that the workload on traffic police has doubled due to development projects.