On Sunday sudden rain accompanied by strong winds caused a drop in the temperature bringing much needed relief to the people of Dehradun fed up of hot humid days. However, those who drove out to enjoy the pleasant change in weather had to undergo harrowing experience jammed amidst vehicles stalled by fallen trees blocking the roads in various localities.
At the Mohkampur railway crossing, a truck carrying lPG cylinders and a bus got stuck directly because of the tree which had fallen blocking one side of the important Haridwar Road near the railway crossing. With the vehicles getting stuck on the tracks, a train coming from the direction of Haridwar towards Dehradun had to be halted. Multitudes of locals and visitors including the State’s additional director general of police, Ashok Kumar who was was going along with his wife towards Haridwar, got stuck in traffic before the police eventually managed to facilitate a passage for the vehicles. The police along with vehicle users who had come out of their vehicles stuck in the clogged traffic made joint effort to stop the vehicles-especially two-wheelers’ traffic on both sides of the road in order to enable the train to go past the crossing at a slow speed of less than 10 kilometers per hour towards the Dehradun railway station. As the train chugged slowly past the crossing, the traffic jam got thicker and longer with queues of vehicles on both sides of the road from the railway crossing to lakshman Siddh temple on one side and till the Jogiwala crossing on the other side. The police personnel who arrived at the incident site initially did not have the required equipment rendering them incapable of doing much for clearing the heavy trunk of the large tree blocking part of the road.
Traffic jams are becoming routine in the State capital at the peak of traffic on the pilgrimage circuit. A major accident was averted here on Sunday due to alertness of the train driver and Mohkampur cabin in charge because they stopped the train. The locomotive pilot was blowing the train’s airhorn desperately wanting to clear vehicular taffic barring the train’s track. Police got active also because ex MlA Omgopal was also among those stuck in the jam.
It is mention worthy here that being a state prone to landslides and other disaster scenarios blocking roads especially in the mountainous regions, the authorities claim to have made necessary arrangements to enable resumption of traffic barred by landslide on the Char Dham Yatra circuit. The level of official efficiency and substance in such governmental claims can only be imagined considering the fumbling and slow response in the plain region of the State capital to the scenario caused by strong winds and rain.
While the State Government continues to seek credit on the basis of rising number of pilgrims on Char Dham Yatra, the level of efficiency shown by the authorities in Dehradun city presents a picture of lack of preparedness. Roads in the city area were blocked by fallen trees at various localities. The police personnel were seen appealing the vehicle users on EC Road to desist from going towards Survey Chowk to avoid inconvenience, they were helpless.