Patiala: Crossing this road is no cake walk

The road has defunct traffic lights, no speed breakers, on-duty traffic police officers or barricades to check speeding vehicles

Crossing the busy road outside Government Medical College and Rajindra Hospital, which is the biggest hospital of the region, is certainly no cake walk.

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The road has defunct traffic lights, no speed breakers, on-duty traffic police officers or barricades to check speeding vehicles. Is it any wonder that patients, students and residents fear for their lives while crossing the road?However, notably the subway built for the convenience of medical students is lying forgotten.

A senior doctor of the hospital, pleading anonymity, said the Medical College and Rajindra Hospital are silent zones as per the Noise Pollution Act and using the pressure horns in the area is prohibited. However, speeding vehicles crossing the stretch use the pressure horn with abandon.Thus, creating a nuisance for ailing patients and students and teachers alike.

Government Medical College principal Dr Harjinder Singh said, “We have written to the traffic police multiple times asking them to install speed breakers, sign boards and traffic lights. We also suggested that they close the dividers. The entrance of the subway, too, has been encroached upon and needs to be cleared.”

A final year medical student, on condition of anonymity, said, “We feel unsafe while using the subway as drug-addicts can be seen standing in the subway at all hours. Therefore, we prefer taking the road to reach the hospital.”

Kuldeep Singh, 60, a patient, who visits the hospital regularly, says, “The huge rush of traffic sometimes makes it impossible to cross the road.”

DSP traffic AR Sharma says, “If we put up traffic lights in the area it will lead to traffic jams. A subway was constructed so that students, patients and doctors can use it. I have no idea why they are not using it.”