SRINAGAR: Massive traffic jams were witnessed in the summer capital Srinagar and its outskirts on Saturday with commuters blaming the authorities for falling to regulate the traffic.
At most of the places which include Lal Chowk, Jahanger Chowk, Regal chowk, Poloview, Dalghat, Habba Kadal , Sanat Nagar, Rajbagh, Batamaloo, Safa Kadal, Sakidaffar and Karan Nagar witnessed a huge traffic mess as the vehicular movement came to halt for a considerable period of time with no one regulating the traffic.
In city centre the traffic cops tried to manage the traffic from Hari Singh High Street to Amira Kadal and M.A Road – but there was hardly any visible improvement in the traffic flow.
The traffic mess is a regular activity from last many days and as a result traffic flow gets affected causing inconvenience to commuters
There was a gridlock for around one hour in many places of the city. The problem was compounded by wrong lane driving by some drivers
People as well as students in Srinagar are up in arms against the authorities for failing to get rid of traffic jams in most parts of the summer capital. The locals said in most of the places and important intersections, traffic police were not present to manage the gridlock, which stretches the congestion for hours together.
Commuters complained that they were stuck for hours in many areas of old city. However, they claimed there are no traffic cops present in the area.
“People were trying their best to ease traffic jam but they were not able to overcome it because of the rush,” a private car owner told Kashmir Reader While as official at Traffic department told Kashmir Reader that due to the accumulation of snow, many areas in Srinagar city is waterlogged “which is the reason from traffic jams”.
He added that they are trying to regulating the traffic so that people don’t face any problem.

NAZIMA SIDIQ