Can someone please rid Delhi of its traffic nightmare?

Civic amenities in Delhi, India’s national Capital, have always been questionable but things become nightmarish once the festival season sets in. Going out to any of the dreadfully crowded bazaars is a complete ‘no’ and the nightmare in this section begins from the start.

First, it is an uphill task to reach the market, even if that happens to be in your backyard. The traffic jams are continuous and they start as early as 8 am. They continue to get worse by the evening and late night.

Then comes the struggle to get to the shop. God forbid if there is a sale going on, you have just had it. Reaching the counter to see the wares you want to buy is next to impossible. There is so much rush at every nook and cranny of any mall, marketplace or even the sidewalk kiosks that become so popular during Diwali.

Those who dreaded going to places like Sarojini Nagar and Lajpat Nagar, now regret driving into the malls as they are no different when it comes to the rush. However, one must commend the police for making a strict regimen for parking in the overcrowded Lajpat Nagar area. None of the parking wallahs in Lajpat are allowed to park vehicles beyond a certain number. The other weekend, which was way before Diwali, one looked for close to one hour for a parking space in Lajpat, but had to come out without finding one.

Same is the case with Select Citywalk where even the third tier parking gets full first thing in the morning. The spilling over traffic has made life miserable for the residents of the area, what with three hospitals, three malls, four schools and the Metro station standing cheek by jowl, bringing in unprecedented traffic of all kinds!

It is about time that something — actually anything — is done to provide the commuters of Delhi with some respite. Ever since the Metro has come up, taking care of lakhs of commuting heads per day, strangely the traffic on the roads has also grown by leaps and bounds. One wonders why, especially when the Metro was supposed to ease road traffic. One reason could be the number of additional ferry vehicles that have been added on the roads due to the rail transport. The other, more viable one, is the fact that many more people are venturing out of their houses due to the long distance accessibility quotient of the Metro. From children to housewives, to office goers to random shoppers, everyone is ready to go across the city from one end to the other to pick up something as innocuous as a bag!

But the question here is, that the population — both human and vehicular — on the roads of Delhi was always meant to grow and in the coming years will only become more unmanageable. So is there anything our planners have decided to do to take care of this menace which results in all kind of health, financial and emotional problems for its population? Is the unprecedented growth been factored in the plan of the Capital? Doesn’t seem to be with some of the planners and road institution heads throwing up their hands in frustration, saying the limiting of vehicular traffic in Delhi has to come from responsible citizens.

Here, one must say, the breed of responsible citizens is non-existent. Ask any of the car possessing families and 80 per cent of the time you will find they have more than three or four cars to take care of their commuting needs. One car for the working woman, one to take care of children’s school journey, one for the man of the house. That they say is the bare minimum they need. And who can you fault here, except policy.

In a tumultuous democracy like India, where inconvenient laws are not followed till one is forced or threatened to follow them, there is hardly any reason for the administrators to believe that there will be any kind of inward thinking in cutting down of luxuries, perceived or otherwise. Why can’t, for example, the Government regulate the number of cars on the roads. Perhaps, one can think of a phased entry and exit, so as to have priority checkpoints. For instance, categorising vehicles according to timings — office time, school time, school getting over time, and then shopping hours. May sound fantastic, but one is sure if implemented even loosely, this might work. Of course emergency permits should always be there to be given out.

Considering that the traffic nightmare in Delhi has become 24x7, expanding from its earlier office hour traffic syndrome, some drastic measures need to be urgently taken — these will save not just the populace from itself but go a long way in bringing down bills of all kinds — be it fuel bills, doctor’s bills or even the stress bills.

And as the debate around this biggest menace gathers momentum, Delhi is reeling as never before, dying under its own population burden. The Capital is crying for a succour. Is there anyone who has even an iota of idea what to do to tackle this very real, very persistent, very intense problem of plenty?

Source: The Sunday Pioneer, 23, October 2011