Traffic management in Kathmandu valley
becoming tougher
(Achyut Regmi)
(Achyut Regmi)
Kathmandu, March 20:
Everybody in Kathmandu Valley perhaps has had a nasty experience of its chaotic
traffic. And, traffic management in the Valley has become knottier every
passing year.
Traffic management in
the capital valley is becoming more and more difficult due to the growing
population, increasing number of vehicles, limited and narrow roads and
breaching of traffic rules by drivers and the pedestrians alike, according to
experts.
Moreover, the
Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, the body established to regulate the
vehicular traffic and maintain road safety in the Valley, lacks the required
human resources to carry out its responsibilities in full steam.
The first car was
brought in Kathmandu by the then Rana rulers some 115 years back. This vehicle
brought from India was carried by people via Bhimphedi route for Kathmandu had
no roads that time. But the members of the general public had the opportunity
to use vehicles only about 1914 A.D.
The number of vehicles
has increased exponentially in Kathmandu valley over the years along with the
population increase.
There are around 1.1
million vehicles operating in the Kathmandu Valley lone, said Dr Tok Raj
Pandey, spokesman at the Department of Transport Management. According to him,
around one hundred thousand vehicles are added every year.
Although the
registration of vehicles was started 69 years back in Nepal, an office for
traffic management was established 66 years ago. This office was known as Ram
Dal. The Central Traffic Company was set up in 1956. It only had 125 traffic
policemen because the number of roads and vehicles was very limited at that
time.
The modern-day version of the company, Metropolitan Traffic
Police Division, has 1346 traffic police personnel, Deputy Superintendent of
Police at the Division, Binod Ghimire, said.
"The problem with
traffic management is because the road expansion and construction of road
infrastructures is far too little in comparison to the rate of urban growth as
well as development of the transportation sector not getting the priority it
should have got in government's policy and programme," Ghimire said,
adding that more than two thousand traffic police personnel would be required
if the they were to mobilize the traffic police in accordance with the traffic
pressure in Kathmandu. The Division currently has a total of 1085 posts but due
to the shortage of manpower, it is compelled to even assign the trainee traffic
police personnel.
Thapathali,
Kesharmahal, Naya Baneshwar, Koteshwar, Chabahil and Kalanki cross-roads among
other places in the Kathmandu valley are the locations notorious for traffic
jams, especially during office time. It is said that one has to wait for 3 to 5
minutes in traffic jam on office days on these main cross-roads. The Central
Traffic Company was later christened as the Valley Traffic Police Office in
1994 and it is known as the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division after 2007.
The Division has set
up its offices at 35 different places within the Kathmandu Valley. One traffic
police personnel has to work between eight to 14 hours a day, the Division
stated.
According to Division
Chief, Deputy Inspector General Mingmar Lama, they are working in accordance
with the values of minimizing the traffic accidents, regulating and managing
the traffic with high level of discipline, reforming the traffic organization
as per the requirement of the times and increasing public participation in
traffic management.
Lama said that
although the total road lengh in the Kathmandu Valley at present is around
1,500 kilometres, the total length of main roads where vehicles can operate
two-way is only between 400 to 500 kilometres. The Division has become stricter
in taking action against drunk driving, drivers for flouting lane discipline
and parking vehicles on the footpath and other offences in a bid to curtain
road accidents.
The Traffic Police has
been managing the Valley's traffic with the help of vehicle patrolling, CCTV
and drone camera. Although the Division has tried to upgrade itself over the
years, it seems it is going to have hard time managing the traffic in Kathmandu
as the number of vehicles goes on increasing and will surely shot up in the
coming days. RSS
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