Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti today called for formulating concrete futuristic traffic management, mobility plan for summer capital Srinagar besides also exploring the possibility of adopting water transportation.The Chief Minister was speaking at a meeting regarding traffic management system in Srinagar. She said that traffic management and mobility plan for the summer capital has to be developed on scientific lines so that people don’t face any inconvenience.The Chief Minister directed the officials for the removal of encroachments from the roads, lanes, by-lanes and footpaths to facilitate hassle-free movement of vehicles and people. She stressed that the rationalization of the street vendors in Srinagar, especially in Lal Chowk, Amira Kadal, Jehangir Chowk, Batamaloo must be done on priority. She asked the SMC Commissioner to make sure that the vendors aren’t seen piling up on the roads which cause inconvenience on the movement of the general public.“Officials should keep vigil on the encroachment of the streets, flood channels, and water bodies so that citizens don’t face any problems,” she said.
The Chief Minister stressed the need for traffic management in a professional manner, so that improvement is visible on the ground and people feel the change. She further emphasized on coordinated efforts by the stakeholders to bring visible improvement in the traffic management in the twin capital cities and other towns of the State.“Considerable increase in traffic has made traffic management a challenging task which needs efficient efforts and proper supervision,” she said directing for putting in effective regulation strategies to ease the difficulties of the people caused by traffic jams.Mehbooba Mufti also stressed for exploring alternate mode of communication and mobility which would bring relief to the people of Srinagar.“We must make sure that large number of water bodies are used for transport purposes in order to ease vehicular pressure on roads of the Valley,” She said. The Chief Minister asked various departments to take necessary steps to start water transport in River Jhelum, Dal, Wullar and other lakes for the benefit of locals.“The officials should review the water transport routes and makes sure that people avail the water transport services from Srinagar to Anantnag and similar services are started for the north Kashmir,” CM said.
The meeting discussed various measures put in place to bring innovative changes in the traffic management and the results achieved thereof. It was told that additional manpower has been pressed into service and modern gadgets introduced to improve traffic the management.The officials informed the meeting that in the draft City Mobility Plan (CMP), areas have been identified for requiring focused attention to improve and upgrade traffic management in Srinagar and Jammu. The Chief Minister also stressed for adopting short and long term measures for improvement of transport scenario in these cities.During the meeting the officers put forth their suggestions regarding traffic jamming, streamlining and regulation of traffic in Srinagar city. Director General of Police, Dr SP Vaid, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Dr Farooq A Lone, IGP Kashmir, Muneer Ahmad Khan, IG Traffic J&K, Jagjit Kumar, SSP Srinagar, Imtiyaz Ismail, SSP Traffic, (Srinagar) Sargun Shukla, Chief Engineers Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Dr Shafqat Khan among other officials were present at the meeting.