More chaos on roads, over 36, 238 vehicles registered in J&K last year

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Aug 26: In what could add more headache for the traffic police and other regulating agencies in the state, Transport Department has registered 36,238 fresh vehicles in 2010. 

This apart, the department has also issued nearly 45,318 driving licenses which include 2,452 commercial and 42,866 non commercial across the state.

Adding another huge fleet to the already over burdened roads, the official records suggest that out of the total vehicles registered last year 23,935 were for Jammu division and 12,203 for Kashmir valley.

Going by the official records, about 7, 19,221 vehicles have been registered in the state during last 10 years till ending December. Of these 1, 26,180 are commercial and 5, 93,041 are non-commercial.

Sources said that though the government has realized revenue of Rs 63.36 crore through Transport Department during the current financial year in the shape of taxes and fee from transporters, but the affect on the roads with addition of these vehicles will be devastating in coming months.

“Addition of these vehicles is like another frightening experience for us, though we cannot stop people buying cars, but there are no new roads to accommodate these in the state”, said a top official from the Transport Department.

“The way private cars are added to Jammu, people should prepare themselves for long traffic jams in coming years”, said a traffic inspector deployed in the city.

To deal with the rush and enforce transparency, the government was forced to computerize eight offices of RTOs and ARTOs at Jammu, Kathua, Rajouri, Udhampur, Srinagar, Baramulla, Leh and Budgam, the districts which are witnessing a steep increase of vehicle registrations.

When contacted Minister of State for CAPD and Transport, Shabir Ahmed Khan said, “Respective RTOs and ARTOs have been asked to gear up at ground level and streamline transport services”.

He further said that owing to the rise in the number of vehicles on the city roads and pressure on the infrastructure, recently for the first time a scientific study is being conducted in Jammu and Kashmir to effectively manage nearly 80, 00,00 local vehicles, besides thousands of floating vehicles which enter the state daily carrying pilgrims of Vaishno Devi shrine, tourists and other pilgrims.