Problems in the east, action in the west

AHMEDABAD: On Tuesday, Amdavadis witnessed a ‘never-seen-before’ unison in traffic and civic authorities cracking the whip on illegal parking, encroachment and other traffic issues in the vicinity of the

Gujarat high court

, on SG Road and in Prahladnagar.

However, according to the traffic police’s own admission before the high court, these problems have reached unfathomable levels in the South, East and North Zones, which are yet to see any action on the ground.

On March 6 and 7 this year, the traffic department invited Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) scientists Dr Ravi Sekhar and Dr Ravindra Kumar, to evaluate the 37 worst traffic intersections in the city, to find why these junctions were turning into death traps and chokepoints. Of these, six intersections were in the western city parts and all of the rest were in the South, North and East Zones. “Most of these intersections are on the 15km Narol-Naroda stretch, where traffic jams, illegal parking and accidents are off the charts,” said a senior south zone official.

In April 2018, the high court observed that the state government and

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

(AMC) need to carry out a “deep study of city’s traffic patterns” to identify problems. Problems cited in the report included the improper location of bus stops and the lack of enforcement of traffic rules causing congestion at intersections. The report also stated that traffic at most intersections is being directed by traffic police, instead of automated traffic signals.

“We had deployed personnel at major intersections to control illegal and multi-directional traffic flow, but it has not yielded results,” said a senior AMC official.