Chaos cloud on Puri fest

Expansion work in progress on NH-203. Picture by Sarat Patra Puri, May 28: Nearly 10,000 buses, 1.5 lakh cars, one lakh autorickshaws, three lakh motorcycles and 30 lakh pilgrims are expected to arrive here on the occasion of Nabakalebar and rath yatra on July 17 and 18. However, cops are in a tizzy as the lack of parking places threatens to plunge festivities into chaos. "The administration has earmarked 30 parking spaces that at best can accommodate 10,000 buses, two lakh motorcycles and 50,000 cars. This is besides Puri's count of one lakh two-wheelers, 12,000 four-wheelers and 7,000 autorickshaws. It's going to be a tough affair," said a police official responsible for traffic management during the mega festival. The major worry is that the five major parking places, including the new bus stand at Malatipatpur, are on the outskirts of the city, while the main bus stand is 8km away. Besides, the government is expecting nearly 200 special trains, which will bring in three lakh pilgrims to the city on July 17 and 18, which coincides with rath yatra. Although the train timings will be staggered to ensure that there is no jam on the tracks, the travel between the three railway stations in the city and on its outskirts will add to pressure on the road traffic. "It is going to be chaotic when people in big processions will walk into the town from these places," said an official. "Major infrastructure works in the city, including road expansion, are yet to be completed and the monsoon is expected to hit the state in mid-June. All branch roads in the city have been dug up either for cabling work or to build sewer lines. If not finished on time, these will cause traffic chaos in the coming days," said a localresident. On Wednesday, at a meeting of the rath yatra co-ordination committee, there were uproarious scenes with local residents criticising the administration for its failure to complete the projects in time. The issue of traffic chaos has come to the fore after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) expressed its inability before Orissa High Court earlier this month to complete the expansion project. To avoid traffic chaos, the state government had planned to build two bypass roads. While one is nearing completion, the progress on the other one connecting Malatipatpur near Puri to Satpada being executed by the NHAI is yet to be over. However, to avoid traffic chaos, an NHAI official said the 10km bypass road would have two lanes instead of four as planned earlier to meet the Nabakalebar deadline. While 5km of the road would be made metallic, the rest would be kachha for the moment. Director-general of police Sanjeev Marik today visited Puri and inspected probable parking sites for vehicles and instructed the officials to complete the pending works by June. "Traffic management is going to be a tough challenge for us. We are working hard to ensure that everything goes off smoothly. We will face the challenge," Marik said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150529/jsp/frontpage/story_22770.jsp#.VWkvRSS9ZJ4