On March 1, residents and commuters from Beltola, Khanapara, Six Mile, Supermarket in particular reported heavy traffic jam in their locality. Several commuters blamed the traffic congestion on The Great Guwahati Marathon 2020.
A few victims of the jam blasted the administration for poorly managing the traffic on a weekend. Guwahatians who went out seeking a comfortable weekend had a harrowing day. Speaking to G Plus, D.C.P. (Traffic) Guwahati, Ranjan Bhuyan said, "Because of the marathon the traffic jam occurred till the entire stretch of GS Road to Last Gate." He then went on to say that extra traffic police was deployed for the commuters to travel smoothly the traffic was eventually eased.
Raj Hazarika, a resident of Six Mile area said, "I went out with my family to the outskirts considering the weekend, but when I entered the city, it was hell. I was stuck in Six Mile for almost an hour." Another resident Abhijit Das said, "I was at work towards Jayanagar, but it took me almost 1½ hours to come back to my residence in Zoo Road because of the traffic. What a waste of a weekend."
G Plus conducted a poll on Facebook asking netizens to put in their votes on whether they think traffic scenario of Guwahati has improved in recent times. A total of 2,700 participants took part. Out of this, 39% said yes while 61% said no, it is getting worse instead.
Many said that parking is one of the main reasons for traffic congestion in the city. If people drive responsibly and park their vehicles in proper parking spots then traffic can be eased down.
“Traffic management has marginally become better.... I feel, some stretches of the city should be declared "No Halt" Zones without much delay. Often people tend to leave their cars with driver on busy locations asking them to wait causing a massive traffic jam behind. Specifically the so called "elite" ones,” said Kausar Ahmed, a resident of Guwahati.
Voters blamed city buses and other public transport for not complying with traffic rules. They also mentioned that transport department, GMC and GMDA need to take this matter seriously and come up with serious plans.
Netizens suggested that the traffic department should penalise those who park their vehicles in odd ways. “City buses and other public transport were main culprits. Next drive should be to penalize people doing double parking and diagonal parking,” said Gaurav Borkakoty.
Tagging Guwahati police and Guwahati traffic in a comment, a concerned citizen highlighted an important issue on GS Road. Priyam Goswami, a resident of Guwahati said that the high wall dividers cover a long stretch without any gap for pedestrians to cross the road. To save time and avoid taking the long stretch, pedestrians jump over the dividers and cross the road. “The entire GS Road is literally f***** up. I just don't get it what they want to achieve with those high walls dividers. Plus currently the gap which was there opposite to Central Mall has also been removed. Now if I literally have to go from one shop to another shop opposite the road I need to take a U-Turn from either Ulubari or Ganeshguri. But this is not stopping people from crossing the roads by jumping, climbing etc risking their lives.”
“An old person can't jump and cross or keep on walking like this. Remember everyone doesn't have a car of their own. So visiting from one shop to another has become a real pain. Provide us proper 3-4 foot bridges or the day is not far when people will themselves break the divider. DON'T MAKE PLANS BY GETTING HIGH.. #guwahatitraffic #Guwahatipolice.”
Another social media user said that traffic can be controlled by reducing the number of vehicles per house. Talking about streetlights, Manjima B Ganguly said that none of the traffic lights in Beltola Tiniali and Jayanagar Chariali work.
There are a few who believe that the government has done a lot to ease traffic congestion in the city and they thanked the government.
Several Guwahatians have lost their hopes on smoother flow of traffic. “Does anyone really believe that it will improve? I never think so,” said Monjit Baruah.
