Chaos rules the roost in Umarkote town roads, thanks to rash driving and unauthorised parking of vehicles. Traffic snarls and accidents are a common sight on the arterial roads of the town, including the Umarkote-Nabarangpur highway.
The worst hit patches are the old bus stand and SBI square-Gandhi Chhak. The area has been squeezed by roadside venders. Besides, parking of vehicles also creates road jams.
The vehicular movement is deeply hampered near the SBI square with much of the space on the roadsides taken over by parking vehicles. Since the bank has no parking facility, the customers park their vehicles on both sides of the highway during the banking hours.
“Traffic in the town is in a complete mess. As patrolling by the police officials has become irregular, rash driving by truck drivers and parking along roads have become common. This endangers the life of commuters, particularly during the school hours,” said Umarkote Bar Association president Prasant Kumar Sahu.
He further said, “Though we have drawn the attention of the administration many times to the problem, no action has been taken. Students and office-goers are the worst-affected.” He added that the main roads connecting major offices and educational institutions become choke-a-block in the morning and slow traffic flow continues till late in the evening. Sahu blamed the carelessness on the part of drivers and lack of prompt action by the local police for the sorry state of traffic.