Jamshedpur school timing: First day of revised schedule sees traffic bottlenecks at Sakchi and Mango

Two hours long traffic jam, vehicles come to standstill  

Jamshedpur, April 18: The first day of change in school time proved to be horrifying for students and their parents. Scores of commuters, especially students today faced a harrowing time due to a traffic snarl which continued for about two hours from 11:30 am. The affected spots included the Mango bridge, Old Court Road and Bhuiyandih Road.

According to information the maintenance work of Mango Bridge along with change in school timing led to choked traffic, which threw normal life out of gear. The bridge is half closed, which has also added to the woes. 

The commuters complained that they were often confronted with such situations.  Long queue of vehicles including trucks, trailers, auto-rickshaws, cars and two-wheelers could be seen at the Mango bridge and the approach roads– Dimna Road, Pardih Road, Old Court Road and Bhuiyandih Road.

The office-goers and others too faced a tough time crossing through the bridge. Many of them got delayed in reaching their offices. Due to the jam the No Entry regulations could not be followed today.

“Traffic management is one of the biggest challenges. Traffic diversion which the traffic administration is taking as part of arrangement during the important days is nothing but doing the duty for the name sake,” said a resident.

A section of commuters also blamed the traffic department for its inability to control the situation. “There would not have been such a chaos had there been traffic constables to manage the situation,” complained a commuter.  Traffic police were deployed to control the situation two hours after the jam began. A section of youths also volunteered in managing the traffic.

A traffic constable deployed on the Mango bridge admitted the fact that traffic congestion has become a regular phenomenon. ” With expansion programmes of Tata Steel and other companies, there has been a rise in the number of heavy vehicles. The pitiable road condition is also to be blamed as it often causes breakdown of vehicles,” he said.

Ramesh Kumar, a student of Motilal Nehru Public School who was returning home after attending a school examination. But, he got trapped in a traffic jam at the Old Court Road which leads to the Mango bridge. Normally, the auto-rickshaw which ferries him takes about half-an-hour to drop him home. But today it took over two hours.