Maintain heritage while making traffic management plans: CM

Traffic management and mobility plan for city of Srinagar will be revised so as to maintain the summer capital's distinct heritage character, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said.
"The government of India subsidiary RITES which has already formulated a mobility plan for Srinagar, would be asked to revisit the same and come up with a refurbished plan in tune with the present day and futuristic requirements keeping in sight the city's distinct heritage character," she said.
Mehbooba also suggested setting up of a traffic engineering institute in Jammu and Kashmir to get locally trained and professionally qualified experts for traffic management.

Mehbooba was chairing a high-level meeting to review the traffic management and mobility plan for the city.
The chief minister said while professional consultants like RITES would be engaged for reworking the long-term traffic and mobility plan for the capital cities, as an immediate measure, the Roads and Buildings Department should take up massive widening of roads, wherever possible, to create more space for movement of traffic and the pedestrians.
She also called for removal of encroachments from roads, lanes, by-lanes and footpaths to facilitate hassle-free movement of vehicles and people.

She stressed on the need for traffic management in a professional manner so that improvement is visible on the ground and people feel the change.

She also emphasised on coordinated efforts from various stakeholders to bring visible improvement in the traffic management in the twin capital cities and other towns of the state.
Considerable increase in traffic and shrinking roads have made traffic management a challenging task which needs efficient efforts and proper supervision, she said.
Earlier, the meeting was informed that in the draft City Mobility Plan (CMP), RITES has identified areas requiring focused attention to improve and upgrade traffic management in Srinagar and Jammu.
It has also suggested short and long-term measures for improvement of transport scenario in these cities.
It has flagged critical infrastructure needs for upgrading mobility within the cities keeping in view the traffic growth and consequent challenges upto 2030.

RITES has also suggested implementation of mass transport system like monorail, bus rapid transport system, in-land waterways transport system, development of parking spaces and widening of roads.