Lack of wide roads in Kathmandu Valley posing challenges in traffic management

By Narayan Dhungana, Kathmandu -  Traffic management in the Kathmandu Valley has become tougher without wide roads to keep up with increasing pressure of traffic and other traffic management aspects. A delay in the construction of corridor roads and other roads; garages, petrol stations and workshops being operated on the sides of the roads violating set guidelines; lack of parking lots and awareness and other technical problems are to blame for a difficulty in traffic management in the Valley, said Senior Superintendent of Police Bhim Prasad Dhakal, chief of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division and coordinator of the taskforce of the integrated traffic management action plan.

Other problems like lack of laws with time, qualified drivers and effective coordination and cooperation between the respective sectors have also contributed to this problem, he said. He, however, mentioned some positive works relating to the traffic management in the Valley lately. The drive to repair roads in the Valley and clean up dusty roads at the direction of Prime Minister is a good initiative to manage roads, he said. The six-member taskforce has submitted the integrated traffic management action plan, 2077 to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The taskforce has categorised traffic problems as short-term and long-term. Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said that the action plan has been important to manage traffic in the Valley and would be implemented with high priority. In this regard, there is a need for cooperation among the Ministry, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and local levels, he said.

Home Secretary Maheshwor Neupane said there is no alternative to implement the action plan to manage traffic in the Valley. Road widening The action plan has prioritised widening of all roads in the Valley at the earliest. The road at Gaurighat should be widened and opening service land after completing remaining construction work of the bridges at Jadibuti and Radhe Radhe, according to the action plan. The long-term plan includes finding out the places where the traffic volume is high, expanding the thoroughfares, concluding process of Ring Road expansion at the earliest, forwarding the concept of outer ring road, taking forward the works on the tunnel way from Nagdhunga and Tokha among others.

Likewise, immediate plan includes filling potholes and puddle on all the roads and blacktopping them. Removal of the petrol pump built on the road side by encroaching road’s area and expanding such road also falls under immediate plan. Also, those factories and workshop built and run alongside the road would be removed and bringing into effect the concept about ‘Autozone’ and the workshop operation directives. As for the parking, removing unauthorized parking and implementing free-parking system should be reviewed and the parking areas should be designated in the corridor areas. Likewise, long-term plan incorporates that the smart-parking should be implemented fully, with the construction of bus park in the bordering areas for the buses entering Nepal, arranging parking for hotels and commercial market among others.

The Integrated Traffic Management Action-Plan underscores construction of underpass and flyover in the roads in Tinkune, Jadibuti, Koteshower, Babarmahal, Singha Durbar areas among others as per the need. Likewise, the plan attaches highest priority to revising the road related laws and making them in tune with the changing times, conducting regular monitoring of the road’s condition and keeping the roads in good condition, raising awareness among road users and underlining traffic education in the school level. Furthermore, the plan recommends to have ‘Kanji House’ for keeping the animals left strayed in the road besides emphasizing traffic children park, constructing model road, construction of traffic village and streamlining the distribution of driving license. Technology-friendly traffic management has been underscored in the Action-Plan, said coordinator Dhakal.