East Singhbhum district administration has ordered traffic police to make special arrangements for streamlining traffic and parking during Durga Puja. The administration has asked the officials to mark different zones and inform the Durga Puja committees in their respective areas to ensure that parking are temporary parking sites for hassle free traffic.

However, the traffic problem is adding to the woes of road users with the congested roads, lack of parking places, poor traffic sense among road users, especially the auto rickshaw and mini-buses. As a part of streamlining traffic the city police has barricaded the intersection near Hotel Nataraj on the  Bistupur Main Road.

Due to closing the intersection on the middle of the busy  Bistupur main road, the commuters have to take turn by riding additional more than 300 metres through the light signal post at the N-Road crossing.

The setting up the barricade near the Hotel Nataraj has led to long queue of vehicles, especially the four-wheelers is formed for getting a green signal at the N-Road crossing.

Notably, a large number organisations, including Tata Workers’ Union, Maharastra Hitkari Mandal, The Milanee, Ram Krishna Mission, Madrasi Sammelani, Jamshedpur Women’s College and a few private sector banks are located close to the Hotel Nataraj intersection.

“I was shocked to see a barricade at the turning point and had to take a turn through the N-Road Crossing, an exercise which was not only time-taking but is also irksome,” said an official of Tata Workers’ Union.

Superintendent of police (city) Prashant Anand said they have barricaded the Nataraj Hotel intersection which will be closed permanently. Anand said they have taken the step they find traffic congestion at the Nataraj turning point regularly during the peak hours of the day.

Anand, when queried, said that they are aware that the vehicles get caught while crossing the N-Road crossing during peak hours, but keeping in view the inconvenience they have decided to extend the span of green signal from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

Incidentally, there are nearly 300 puja committees in the city out of which nearly 40 witness huge footfalls and are also accompanied with fairs. Moreover with the vehicular movement of puja hoppers in Telco (HS road), Jugsalai( Station Road), Sonari (near Kagalnagar), Sakchi (Aam Bagan and Kasidih), Bistupur (Rani Kudar), Kadma (Rankini Temple), are most likely to draw heavy crowd and traffic personnel would face the problem in these areas.

The Kharkhai Bridge, the only link between Steel city and Adityapur, that witness sea of vehicles during the Pujas, demands additional force to control vehicular traffic. "We want to make sure that the pujas are ‘accident free’ for the people. Proper guidance from traffic police would help the cadets,” said a senior police official.