Srinagar City is witnessing a horizontal growth. Right before our eyes Srinagar city expanded from a population of six lakh souls to the current 18 lakh souls and counting. All this growth is horizontal with an insatiable need of everyone wanting an independent standalone home entailing an unavoidable horizontal growth. It would not be surprising to see that at four million souls population Srinagar may have a cumulative area of any Indian metropolitan city. Providing civics facilities over such a large area can be a huge infrastructural challenge.
One such challenge that is currently visible on the roads of Srinagar is the transport scenario – unending traffic jams and bumper-to-bumper traffic are the order of the day. There are various choke points where the traffic jams just seem perennial. The reason behind all this traffic mess is the absence of roads. At two million population we have the same number of roads we had when the city’s population was barely five lakh souls. Why no government in the last four decades taken pains to create newer, wider roads? This is a question that needs some serious answers.
One can only imagine the scenario in 2035 when the city’s population including the fleeting population would be around three million souls. With a better economy, there would always be more cars-always. Where are we building those roads on which these half a million more cars will play?
We have to explore the option of water transport for intra-city mobility. A case in point can be the water metro in Cochin which has revolutionised the transport scenario in Kerala’s financial capital. Also, we can pray for the proposed Srinagar metro to start operations by 2030.
Let us hope the current administration will seriously chalk out a strategy for the better management of the city’s traffic.
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