For much of Monday and Tuesday, an untold number of commuters were left stuck in the middle of the roads for hours by massive traffic jams in Kathmandu roads.
The traffic jams caused inconveniences to thousands of people, especially from Koteshwor to Kalimati, as the roads were cleared for the visiting Chinese delegation led by Li Zhanshu, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.
Public and private vehicles were forced to slow down their pace or divert to another route to reach the destination. At times, even the pedestrians were prevented from crossing the roads.
The scenario continued on Tuesday from early morning as major road sections were emptied for the VIP travel.
Uninformed in advance, the public were shocked by the massive traffic jam on Monday. A notice issued for Tuesday also turned ineffective.
At 8:39 am on Tuesday, the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office, through its social media handles, informed the public about disturbance in traffic and requested to use alternate routes.
According to the post, the disturbance would start at 8:45 am.
“Under special reasons, traffic will be disturbed along Soaltee Hotel, Kalimati, Teku, Bhotebahal, Tripureshwor, Thapathali, Kupandole, Maitighar, New Baneshwor and Tinkune area from 8:45 am,” the notice reads.
Similarly, at 11:30 am the same route was also affected.
At 3:30 pm, the traffic disturbance repeated along the same route up to Maitighar from where the convoy of the visiting delegation moved towards Singha Durbar, Bhadrakali and Padmodaya area. The same route got disturbed again at 4:30 pm, causing traffic jams in many places of the city.
Traffic police had suggested public to use alternate routes. However, they were also congested as more vehicles got diverted towards limited alternate routes.
Ambulances with patients, students in school buses and employees were late to reach their destinations due to the traffic jams chocking the roads.
“With all due respect to honorable dignitaries arriving in Kathmandu, I just don’t understand why our government has to hold Kathmandu traffic during peak office going hour! #statevisits #traffichold,” tweeted Krity Shrestha with a photo of being stopped on Tuesday.
Public have urged authorities to not disturb commoners for hours.
The Chinese delegation is on a four-day official visit, because of which the disturbance along the roads is likely to continue until Thursday.
According to officers at the KVTPO, it is hard to manage the traffic, which is stopped and disturbed for more than an hour, with similar multiple disturbances across the day.
For lack of proper alternate routes, the KVTPO officers stressed that it was impossible to manage traffic of Kathmandu in situations like the present one.
Source : TRN,
