Capital woes: Kohima’s perennial traffic snarls

Atono Tsükrü
Kohima, May 16 (EMN): The ever rising traffic congestion is an inevitable condition which keeps getting worse with every passing day. Commuters have to spend frustrating hours in the traffic jam helplessly staring blankly at the car in front of them.
There has been an increase in the growing numbers of vehicles, with little or no remedial policies from the government to eliminate and ease road congestion and with no sign of road extension; the traffic problem is here to stay. Although it is not feasible to totally eliminate road congestions, some policies are required to curb the never-ending traffic jams.
A report from the Transport department has informed that during the period 2015-16, a total number of 31,541 (thirty one thousand five hundred forty one) vehicles were registered. Also during the period from April 1, 2016 to January 31, 2017, a total of 24,634 (twenty thousand six hundred thirty four) vehicles were registered in the state, while a total of 13472 (thirteen thousand four hundred seventy two) driving licenses were issued during the same period.
Attributing the over population and bringing in of used-vehicles from outside to Nagaland as the major factors s contributing to the traffic congestions, DSP (Traffic) Tekasosang Jamir talking to Eastern Mirror lamented the absence of any circular roads in Kohima town.
He also pointed out that there is no chance of extension of the road, as landowners are not willing to give away even an inch their land for extension of road.
Another major problem, Jamir said is that people in Kohima continue to buy vehicles without having a garage, and parking their cars by the road which hinders free vehicular movement.
In this regard, he said it has recently come up with a new policy that no vehicles will be registered unless a vehicle owner has a parking space of his/her own. He said the district administration and traffic personnel are personally verifying the same at the spot.
Jamir also opined that there should be restriction on the registration of local and zonal taxis which are mushrooming, causing lots of problems.
Commenting on the ISBT below Old Check Gate Kohima, which is almost on the verge of completion, Jamir opined that unless the NST is shifted down there at the earliest, there will be lots of traffic jam in the main town with plying of heavy buses and taxis.
With no proper place for parking in the town, Jamir said he has requested the chief minister to complete the multi-parking facilities at Old NST and Old Medical directorate at the earliest, which have been abandoned without any sign of progress.
He said once these two multi-parking facilities are completed, vehicles will not be allowed to park by the road, and this in turn will ease traffic congestion as there will be free vehicular movement.
Also with no circular roads in Kohima town at present, Jamir said a request has been put forth to the chief minister to complete the under construction circular road from Kohima Orphanage to IG Stadium, which, he said required just some black topping at the earliest and also the circular road from Lerie to Secretariat Road. If these two roads come up, he said it will ease the traffic problem in Kohima town to a certain extent.
With the extension of the town area, Jamir said the duty of the traffic personnel have increased manifold over the years, and though it is trying its best taking some correction measures, he said there are still lots to be done.
With 149 traffic personnel, 62 mahilas and 45 home guards on duty at present and with the demand for regulation of traffic, Jamir said the department has asked for reinforcement of traffic personnel as it is unable to cover the whole area.
NST service operations depleting
The Nagaland State Transport is to provide access to the most interior areas and corners of the state where road connectivity exists and also provide basic and affordable passenger affordable transport facility especially to the rural areas and economic uplift of the common man.
However, it was learned that the fleet strength of the department has drastically depleted over the years due to non-replacement of the over-aged condemned buses.
With the present fleet of 196 no of buses, 1 (one) breakdown vehicle and 1(one) truck, the Transport department in its annual administrative report 2017 said out of the total fleet, the age of 46 buses are 4-7 years and 150 buses are said to be beyond economic age of 7-16 years, with which the entire operational activity of the department is carried out. As a result of the decline in fleet strength, it said the physical as well as revenue performance of the department has greatly declined.
Also due to the depletion in fleet strength of the Department, out of the 203 Notified Routes and 508 Scheduled Service, the Department at present could operate only on 117 routes with a route length of 10767 kms and 127 Scheduled Services covering 20,036 kms daily which include Inter-State Service connecting Imphal (Manipur) from Dimapur and Kohima and from Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh)- Dimapur.
Hence, against the revenue target of Rs 2191 lakhs, during 2016-17, the department could collect revenue of Rs 592 lakhs only since it is covering only 117 scheduled services which is less than 25% of its capability.
The department also mentioned that the drastic decline of its fleet from 272 buses to 106 buses since 2014 with no new buses inducted as fund was not provided.
It has also informed that the work for development of software installation of vehicle tracking device and Passenger Information System (PIS) have been held since 2014-15 due to none-release of the state share by the state government.