By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Time: 1030 PM (Saturday). Place: Rajpur Road Dehradun. A couple of cars have blocked traffic near a liquor shop causing vehicles to move at a snail’s pace.
The main stretch of Rajpur Road is witnessing unprecedented traffic jam causing inordinate delay to people especially commuters these days thanks to the summer rush of tourists to the hills of Uttarakhand. The situation in Haridwar and Rishikesh is no different.
“Rajpur Road used to be dead during nights. These traffic snarls are giving bad name to Dehradun and Mussoorie,” said Avnish Oberai, a Dehradun-based prominent businessman.
A tourist from Delhi lost his life in Mussoorie on Thursday after he was caught in the worst traffic jam in the hill resort. Mussoorie is gridlocked almost every day.
Traffic snarl-ups are occurring at Mussoorie, Haridwar, Dehradun, and many other places in Uttarakhand causing great inconvenience to tourists and locals alike.
The situation becomes worse during the office hours in most of the places.
“As the number of pilgrims and tourists to places like Mussoorie, Nainital, Rishikesh and other Chardham traffic routes keeps rising, we urgently need to ask: are our system ready to respond when lives are at stake of all places in a traffic jam,” said Anoop Nautiyal, a renowned social activist who lives in Dehradun.
Traffic or no traffic, these are the trying times in Uttarakhand especially when the covid cases are on the rise in the country. “When the rush is heavy, the police cannot do much,” admitted a top police officer.
The opposition Congress slammed the state government for not taking any steps to control the traffic. “The traffic system has collapsed. On most of the Chardham yatra routes, there is no policing,” said Suyakant Dhasmana, vice-president of Uttarakhand Congress.
The only solution to traffic problem in Uttrakhand or else where is good and efficient public transport system. Electric buses, underground metros and ropeways are future options.
Next option is very harsh transport laws. We should adopt Singapore model. Where only a specified number of privates cars are allowed in the city based on the capacity of city to accommodate those vehicles. Registration fees are much higher than the cost of car. Traffic rules are very stringent and are implemented strictly.
Next step is controlling the illigal migration in the Uttrakhand and population control measures.
An efficient administration is required to implement and execute the required policies.