Perennial snarls at Ganeshguri junction slowing down city traffic
Like many other wards in Guwahati, traffic congestion and frequent violation of rules under the Ganeshguri flyover have been causes of inconvenience and concern for the residents.
The smooth movement of traffic is paralysed by the city buses, auto rickshaws and share taxis that pick up passengers from the road.
“This is the most confused area of the city. Vehicles from every direction come and go. The traffic personnel either lack experience or are very lax in their work as they hardly seem to put in any effort to ensure uninterrupted movement of vehicles,” Karan Bora, a resident of Hatigaon and who commutes daily through the area, said.
Located in Ward No 19 of Guwahati Municipal Corporation, the traffic junction under the flyover lies at the intersection of two major roads in the city – Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva Path (GS Road) and RG Baruah Road (Zoo Road) – and it carries heavy traffic throughout the day. Two lanes from Japorigog – Nayanpur Road and Hengrabari Road also open up at GS Road under the flyover.
Thus, it not only impacts the residents of Ward No 19, but also those living in the neighbouring wards such as Ward Nos 17, 20 and 26.
“Earlier traffic jams were seen during the office hours and in the evenings when the vehicular movement is at its peak. But now, traffic snarls begin from 10 am and last till 9 pm. Only Sundays and the second and fourth Saturdays are exceptions,” Imtiaz Ahmed, who lives in Hatigaon Chariali, said.
To add to the chaos, the footpaths on both the sides of the Dr RP Road have been encroached by roadside vendors and their stalls that attract a huge crowd every day. Faster movement of vehicles is further prevented by cars parked on the narrow lanes.
“We constantly make rounds near the bazaar area of Ganeshguri and along the footpaths and try to clear the illegally parked vehicles regularly. But it is a tough job since people often park their vehicles for a few minutes for shopping,” a traffic police personnel said.
Commuters complained that the snarl causes a delay of at least 20 minutes through the half kilometre radius of the area.
“I travel almost daily through this region and in peak hours it might last for more than 30 minutes. On an average, we keep an extra time of 20 minutes in hand to cross this area,” Pankaj Sarma, a resident in Ganeshguri, said.
The surge of vehicles in the city with the introduction of app-operated taxis such as Ola and Uber has further aggravated the traffic load in the area.
"Most of the vehicles flouting traffic norms are the app-operated taxis. They are always in a hurry and break signals. They also park the vehicles at No Parking zones to board passengers whenever they don't see traffic personnel around," said one traffic police personnel.
“Ganeshguri flyover flawed in concept,” residents
Residents of Ganeshguri are of the opinion that the flyover which took years to build is based on a flawed plan.
Built in 2006, the long flyover starts from the Walford (now housing the KFC and Pizza Hut outlets) area and terminates near the Kar Bhavan. The PWD has proposed to build a 1.2 km long flyover from Ganesh Mandir in Dispur to Nursery bus stoppage on Zoo Road which will crisscross the existing one.
“The crisscross flyover that the state PWD is mulling should have been built back in 2006. GS Road is already very wide and capable enough to handle traffic much more than the roads that run under the flyover now. Instead the government decided to have the flyover on GS Road leaving the areas under it battling traffic jams on a daily basis,” Paresh Kalita, a businessman at Ganeshguri, said.
Another resident, Pallab Saharia said, “The flyover has aggravated the traffic problem although its objective was quite the opposite. Four roads intersect under the flyover. The space between the pillars of the flyover is not enough to allow smooth vehicular movement. If two trucks or buses approach from the opposite directions, it creates congestion which takes at least 20 minutes to clear. Had the bridge been built from Zoo Road to Ganesh Mandir, the entire GS Road could have been put under two pillars, thus causing no major hurdle,” Saharia added.
Traffic jams unavoidable: Councillor
The councillor of Ward No 19, Ranjit Barman, however is not hopeful of a solution to the existing traffic congestion since there is hardly any scope for expanding the roads.
“All the roads that meet here are running to their full capacity and there is no scope for expansion. I raised this issue several times in the council meeting, but no solution came up,” Barman said.
He further added, “The only way is to build a road over the Ganeshguri flyover. This had been an idea for quite some time, and being a councillor, I too had pitched for the same for a long time. If it happens, the problem will be solved.”
He explained that his current focus was more on resolving problems like flash floods and crisis of drinking water in the ward.