Religious processions and rallies continue to cause traffic congestion frequently in the State capital with the authorities appearing helpless to effectively address the situation. Traffic jams lasting hours on various city roads have become a common feature of the city whenever such processions are taken out.
Naresh Sharma, an auto rickshaw driver, said that these kinds of procession are very common in Dehradun and routinely cause heavy traffic jams on already busy main roads. He also said that a separate place should be allocated for such events as they create many problems for the citizens. Santosh Kohli, a local shopkeeper, said that areas in the heart of the city like the Paltan Bazaar are not the right place for such processions as it is a commercial area and number of people visit shops here.
“During processions, both the shoppers and shopkeepers face many problems. A proper place should be designated for such processions as it generally takes more than two hours for religious processions to be completed by which time it disturbs everyone’s schedule,” he said.
Homeguard Cl Verma said that it is very difficult to manage the traffic at the time of processions especially in evening because everyone is in hurry at that time and many people do not follow traffic rules properly. He said that, traffic in charge faces much difficulty while handling the traffic at the time of processions. These activities should be done outside the city or organised after 8:00 pm so that no one suffers its negative consequences, he added.
local resident Ankit Rawat said that the problem is not with the procession per se but with its timing. Most of the religious processions take place in the evening when most people are in a hurry which exacerbates the traffic jam. He said that traffic on many main roads is diverted during religious processions which further increase traffic congestion and public inconvenience.
Another local resident Pradeep Aagri said that these processions should not be taken out on main roads of the city as they cause major traffic congestion. He also said that price of petrol is increasing often and vehicle users use more fuel due to congestion caused by such processions. Processions have become common in town so they should be held on the weekends to minimise public inconvenience, he added.
Another local resident, Nitin Singh, said that at the time of the procession all routes should be open for the public as everyone is in a hurry during the evening time. The traffic jams caused by processions are hard even for the police to resolve due to the heavy load of traffic in restricted spaces, he said.