The Shimla Police has rolled out an extensive five-point traffic management plan since the influx of nearly 15 lakh vehicles to the hill station began since May 1 till June 15 during the summer holiday season.
The sudden closure of schools for vacations and the surge in tourism in the State, are causing heavy traffic on the highways and roads to popular places of Himachal Pradesh. Also, according to industry estimates, hotel occupancy in the state has not dropped below 70 to 80 percent, even peaking at 90 percent during weekends.
Banning forklifts and fuel-powered tools and machines, adding more manpower, strict monitoring, using alternate routes, using rapid response teams and encouraging public transport are the main pillars of the new strategy, said Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh. However, with a strong management of internal bottlenecks traffic flow can be substantially enhanced with the number of visitors.
Police have brought in 210 officers, including home guards and volunteers, to traffic strain points and parking lots to help alleviate congestion. To respond quicker to incidents and violations, the number of bike borne traffic officers has been increased.
One problem mentioned by the authorities is vehicles often collapsing into on-coming traffic on the main route of transport in Shimla – Cart Road. To overcome the problem, three cranes have been set up in various parts of the city for quick lifting of disabled vehicles.
The city has also been divided into various traffic sectors and each one of these is supervised by a gazetted officer tasked to monitor traffic and solve traffic related problems in case of traffic congestion. Eforcement of traffic standards and prevention of violations are being done by interceptor vehicles.
Planning for tourist’s flow has been recommended to avoid loading Kufri roads when travelling to Theog/Shoghi, Narkanda and Kinnaur using Shoghi bypass.