National 6 (Spotlight Weekly)

Crammed Streets

Due to huge number of vehicles, the valley residents have a hard time navigating their streets

By PAWAN BISTA

The rapid increase in the number of vehicles plying on the streets of Kathmandu Valley is posing serious problems to commuters and government authorities. Around 80% of all vehicles registered in Nepal are swarming the congested streets of the valley. The situation has become dreadful. It has worsened the already sorry state of the traffic management in the valley.

With 4,00,000 vehicles in the valley, the traffic police department, which has only 591 personnel, is finding it increasingly hard to control the explosion of vehicle population in the valley. "In 2052 B.S. we had 591 traffic personnel and as of today we still have 591 traffic personnel, but the amount of vehicles have increased by 10 times in that period," says Govinda Prasad Niraula, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) at the traffic police department.

Another concern is also the length of road needed for all of the vehicles to run smoothly. Kathmandu Valley has 1319km of road including 702km black-topped, 290km of gravel and 327km of muddy road. "This is not enough," says a junior official at the department of transport. He further said, "If you keep all the vehicles registered inside the valley (totalling 2,55,868 till 2060/2061) parked one after another in the Ring-road, the vehicles will overflow." This also means that the motorways in the valley are not sufficient for the already increasing number of vehicles.

Due to mismanagement and excess number of vehicles, accidents are steadily on the rise. Irresponsible young drivers, driving under influence of alcohol, not complying with traffic rules and regulation and not properly trained drivers pose hazards on the roads. The number of accidents in the Kathmandu valley in the year 2059/2060 was 2225 excluding the 108 killed and 161 seriously injured. Many still go unreported.

"Rule books have been written. There are very responsible drivers and policemen. However, the problem is though you may ride safely, there will always be somebody driving so dangerously near you that without any fault of yours you get hit," said a commuter.

Travelling has become a survival test. Prakash Dawadi, a local said, "It has been 7 years since I have bought a motorbike and each time that I take the lane that takes me to my home about 50 meters inside ring road my heart pounds vigorously. With so many vehicles running on the ring road I thank god for sparing my life each day." There are other people who share similar woes.

There are some improvements too. The traffic signals on Thapathali junction, Putalisadak and Kalanki - built under the Japanese assistance - have definitely given a boost to the management of traffic in the valley. Three wheelers were banned and now the black tempos have also been banned (one of the main causes of accidents in the valley). However, that is not enough. "The rising number of accidents and too many traffic jams are all the product of lack of strong physical infrastructure. Unless the infrastructure is strengthened we will be having more problems like these," said DSP Govinda Prasad Niraula.

(Bista is an intern)