Poor traffic management in Dibrugarh

A Correspondent

Dibrugarh, April 13: The ugly consequences of a poor traffic management system have come to the fore here in the days leading to the festival of Bohag Bihu. The entire market area of the town has been turned helter-skelter due to the inadequate as well as improper parking provisions and traffic rules. In the absence of decent parking arrangements, the vehicle owners have been left with no other option but to park their vehicles alongside the road, causing botheration and inconvenience to the other people. One of the busiest roads of the town – R.K.B. Path – has turned utter chaotic with incessant honking of vehicles and cars making a beeline for the central shopping area. An important festival like Bihu attracting a multitude of crowd to the town is no surprise, and can be easily foreseen by anyone, let alone the authorities concerned. In spite of this, what is downright baffling is the fact that no measures were adopted to avert this bothersome situation. Moreover, one wonders why vehicles have been allowed to enter the narrow Jhalukpara Road. This road, which has the popular Tibetan Refugee Market as well as few other important shopping outlets, draws a substantial number of youth, more so during festive seasons. Therefore, giving a free hand to rash riders to zoom along the road, which leaves the pedestrians, primarily undergraduates, vulnerable to mishaps.  

The town, for long, has been in need of a multi-layer parking lot in the wake of a steep rise in the number of vehicles. Yet, no such structure or plan can be seen in the making. More importantly, after the completion of Bogibeel Bridge this year, the current state of traffic management, if not overhauled, will only go out of the frying pan into the fire. With more and more number of people travelling from the Dhemaji district and other adjacent areas in response to the pull factor of Dibrugarh, the current traffic provisions, by all likelihood, will go for a toss.