GUWAHATI: It has been rightly said that the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry! An example is the signal-free intersection at Jalukbari in Guwahati. The plan was made to ease traffic congestion. However, the plan has ended up creating traffic snarls. The flyover there often teems with honking cars, from nose to tail. All these problems, according to the police, stem from the reality that there is neither any specific place for parking nor for the public carriers to stop their vehicles at this juncture.
It is at this point that the AT Road criss-crosses the flyover through an underpass. The juncture is a mess of arterial roads where drivers get confused. This leads to traffic congestion every now and then.
While some of the vehicles coming from the Amingaon side on the left lanes of the flyover proceed straight towards Khanapara, some others go towards Guwahati city through an arterial road originating from the extreme left lane of the flyover.
On the other hand, both the Guwahati-bound and the Khanapara-bound buses drop their passengers on the flyover at this point where other small carriers also park their vehicles. Moreover, the west-bound passengers who alight from buses there have to cross the flyover risking their lives.
The lanes on the other half of the flyover at this junction also face a similar situation. Saraighat-bound buses pick up passengers at this point. The Jalukbari-bound carriers from the west drop their passengers on the flyover. Buses bound for North Guwahati, Sualkuchi, Hajo, Nalbari, Baihata Chariali, Mangaldai, Tezpur etc take passengers from this spot as well, thereby leading to traffic snarls. All these have made chaotic the best laid plans of the signal-free intersection.
The situation has come to such a pass that passengers get confused and miss the very roads that can lead them to their respective destinations.
Not too far away from this chaotic spot lies another similar location near the Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Khetra. Students and other pedestrians who come from and go to the university side cannot go straight as there is no zebra-crossing, nor is there any foot overbridge. They have to cross the road risking their lives and limbs as they have to face all the west-bound vehicles.
Talking to The Sentinel, general secretary of the Gauhati University Postgraduate Students’ Union (GUPSU), Nayanjyoti Gogoi said: “We face problems while crossing the road at this junction. The State administration has already been informed about this problem by the university authorities, and others. However, nothing tangible has been done so far.”
ACP (traffic) Atul Malakar said: “We’ve put up barricades at the junction to let vehicles coming through the university route take the diversion via Vidyanagar. We’ve also deployed our personnel for the safety of pedestrians coming from and going to the university side.”
When asked on the public carriers stopping on the flyover to take and drop passengers, the ACP said: “The blame goes to the commuters as well. If the commuters aren’t conscious, such problems will linger. All these problems stem from that reality that we don’t have any specific place for parking of vehicles at this junction. Nor is there any specific point for the buses to stop.”
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