Bareilly: Traffic snarls continue to bother city residents even as the traffic police department has deployed more than 150 cops at prominent locations and junctions in an effort to do away with this chronic problem. Encroachments by local vendors on the roadsides not only a contributing factor to it, but aggravates the situation as well.Traffic congestions and serpentine queues of vehicles in almost all prominent city localities and junctions — especially in Civil Lines, Chowki Crossing, Satellite, Stadium road, Shyamganj, Qutubkhana, Novelty Crossing, Police Lines, Station road, Izzatnagar, Quila road and Mini bypass — expose ineffective traffic management by the traffic department and the cops on duty.“It takes 20-30 minutes to reach Hartmann road, which is hardly a kilometre from Quila. Traffic constables have been there but of little or no help as the road connecting Quila to Kudeshiya Phatak remains blocked completely, even in the afternoon,” rued Kanchan Singh, a teacher and a daily commuter on Quila-Kudeshiya Phatak road.The worst hit is, however, Choupla road and junction as it continues to reeling under heavy traffic congestion since morning to late evening hours. Besides, the traffic on the road leading to city station from Choupla junction is too chaotic. Although this section is manned by more than 22 traffic personnel throughout day, the problem is far from dying down.“Be it any hour of the day, the Choupla road is the worst-affected area. Non-functional traffic signals at the junction further add to the traffic woes. Haphazard movement of vehicles from all directions chocks the junction, even as it is managed by many policemen,” Umang Khanna, a regular commuter and resident of Madinath, told TOI.Superintendent of police (traffic) Subhash Gangwar said, “Efforts are on to maintain free movement of traffic in the city. And we have sufficient numbers of traffic policemen deployed across the city to tackle the problem. Choupla, which is badly-affected by traffic jams, has maximum number of cops deployed there.”“Moreover, the construction work of the proposed flyover at Choupla has been started. As the flyover will connect the existing Choupla-Badaun flyover to Ayub Khan, Delhi road and Chowki Crossing, once completed it will help ease traffic flow on this section. If required so, similar steps (erecting flyovers) will be taken at other places as well to ease traffic congestion,” said SP.Moreover, encroachments on the roadsides in some areas — District hospital road, Novelty-Kaalibadi stretch, Kotwali road, Civil Lines and Shyamganj, among others — have aggravated the problem of traffic congestion.Crossing the 200-metre-stretch between the district hospital and Novelty in the heart of the city proves nightmarish to commuters as encroachments on both sides of the road makes it narrow. Similar situation exists in Shyamganj, Kotwali, Islamiya market road, Qutubkhana and Kaalibadi (near roadways bus stand).Asked about the Bareilly Municipal Corporation’s failure in removing encroachments from roadsides, municipal commissioner RK Shrivastava told TOI, “BMC has been working on it. A three-phase plan has been chalked out, which includes eviction, spot fines and seizing the belongings, and allotment of portable shops to vendors.”“The process of allotment of small shops for a fixed monthly rental will be undertaken soon. It will give the market an organised look and also help ease traffic congestion,” he added.

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