National 5 (Spotlight Weekly)

Road Rage

With the growing number of vehicles and frequent agitations, valley’s narrow lane roads have become centers of anarchy

By A CORRESPONDENT

If one likes to experience what traffic looks like in Kathmandu valley, riding one’s vehicle through a portion of Chabahil gives a good example. The road leading to Nepal’s culturally and religiously important place Boudhanath Temple and two important hotels Hotel Hyatt Regency and Gokarna Resort is almost perennially congested.

Traffic Jam : Unending sight

To cross about one kilometer road from Gaushala to Hotel Hyatt Regency takes one about half an hour. Built with the investment of more than billions of rupees, these two well-known hotels are now facing the consequences of traffic congestion as a main hindrance to promote tourism.

Along with accommodating packs of cars, the roads of the valley also have to empty space to agitators of different political parties. Narrow lanes, bulging number of vehicles and political agitation makes driving an experience of hell in valley. As the roads inside the city are usually blocked by the political agitators, the traffic management has become complicated.

“As soon as there are certain obstructions in the roads, we have to run helter skelter in order to divert vehicles and manage the traffic,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Surendra Pal, chief of Valley Traffic Police Office.

Results of haphazard planning, roads of Kathmandu valley have little scope and space for expansions. Although there are possibilities for alternatives, they are too costly and unaffordable.

“We are making efforts to find alternatives to reduce the traffic congestion in Chabahil area,” said a senior engineer at Traffic division of Department of Roads. “We are studying various options for Chabahil including alternative roads or extension of present lanes.”

Along with narrow streets, the valley’s other immediate problem is the undisciplined behavior of drivers and riders. Since traffic police and enforcement agencies are busy diverting agitations and demonstrations, the road is free for all including drivers and motorbike riders.

Rampant turning, overtaking and random parking causes many road related problems. A few minutes of road block could result in hours of traffic jam.

“Every month more than 500 new cars and up to 2000 new motorbikes are entering into the city jostling for the limited space in the narrow lanes of the road. The trend of importing vehicles continues to rise,” said a senior official at Department of Transport Management.

As Indian cars and motorbikes producers are flooding their vehicles in the valley and banks and financial institutions are offering concessional loans and hire-purchase schemes, these vehicles have suddenly become affordable to a large section of population of valley.

At the initiative of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), some roads in the city are being expanded but the efforts could be termed as too little too late to accommodate the growing vehicles in the valley.

The problem in Chabahil junction is that it is the meeting point of many roads. This section of the road was built in 1974 to facilitate the vehicles coming from outside core city area and to provide access to north and eastern areas of the valley. The Chabahil portion of ring road from Gaushala to Chabahil chowk used to be a four lane road but now only two lanes are operational as one lane on each side are being used to park buses.

At a time when the numbers of vehicles are increasing and traffic congestion continues to create problems, it is high time to plan alternative roads to fan out the vehicle density.