Jaipur: The traffic wing of Jaipur commissionerate appears to be focused entirely on managing areas where VVIPs and bureaucrats reside, leaving the rest of the city in the grip of vehicular congestion.At Tonk Puliya, the disparity is evident on the two sides of the railway overbridge (ROB). On one side, the traffic department recently implemented a one-way system to facilitate movement of traffic over the ROB as well as towards Gandhi Nagar and Bajaj Nagar, residential areas for the state’s bureaucrats and a few ministers. Conversely, the other side of the Tonk Puliya experiences heavy congestion and long traffic jams with vehicles coming face-to-face from multiple directions.Bajaj Nagar resident Avinash Sawant said there were no major issues with the eastern side of the Puliya for most of the day. Only during the evening, when a few major trains stop at Gandhi Nagar railway station, the stretch between Kendriya Vidyalaya Tiraha and Tonk Road gets congested for a while, he said.“As this is the road for several influential residents to reach home, police have imposed one-way restrictions here. On the contrary, the stretch between Tonk Phatak and Tonk Road has always been more congested with vehicles coming from multiple directions. Shops, stalls and arbitrary parking on both sides compound the problem. Traffic officials take no action for this stretch,” said Sawant.Daily commuters claimed that whenever the gates of Tonk Phatak reopen after a train passes through, the problem escalates. Vehicles from Barkat Nagar side take a right turn towards the Tonk Puliya underpass—which was officially restricted after the signal free project was enforced—making it almost impossible to move ahead.“Often it takes 15 to 20 minutes to cover this barely 300-metre stretch. Coming from Bajaj Nagar side, even after you manage to take a right turn under the Tonk Puliya while criss-crossing heavy traffic from Gandhi Nagar Railway station side, there is no respite. Vehicles come from the opposite direction and slow your movement once again,” said Kishan Lal Gurjar, a cab owner.Traffic officials claimed that owing to acute manpower crisis, there are issues with monitoring around the Tonk Puliya. “As far as the one-way restriction is concerned, we have implemented such measures at a few more locations across the city. This has been imposed on an experimental basis. We will evaluate the situation soon,” said Sumeet Meharda, DCP Traffic.
Tonk Puliya Traffic Woes: One-way system benefits VIP areas while nearby stretches jammed | Jaipur News
