Traffic problem : Permanent or Temporary Solution ?

Shagolsem Lenin Singh *

Caught in traffic snarl : In the absence of proper traffic management travelling on the roads of Imphal has become a hellish experience in first week of April 2012 :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

When we build a house we need separate rooms for kitchen, bed room, drawing room etc. which have got different purpose defined by the name itself. However, if we have all of them in one room then most of the time we end up creating a garbage unless the resident is a smart room/interior designer. And to become one such smart designer we need to spend time and effort.

The present condition of in and around Imphal city, in the absence of proper planning and lack of public support, has been reduced to a chaotic condition. To deal with this rapid urbanization we have to be dynamic and need smart environmental friendly solution to these problems. As a matter of fact, general public are equally responsible for creating such a dirt and chaos in the city because people hardly care for public properties and everybody likes to follow their own set of rules. In short, we lack civic responsibility, and we somehow inherited a very friendly attitude 'adum ngaihaki yana yanaba' (manage temporarily and then forget the problem) which at the end screws us.

Recently, under the direction of DSP Y. Victoria (Traffic Control Police, Imphal) there has been several attempts to improve the traffic condition mainly in the Imphal city. This may be part of a bigger plan of the Government of Manipur. To my knowledge, we never witnessed such sincere effort in the past and therefore deserve appreciation and support from the public for initiating the good work.

However, the question that keeps coming to our mind is – "Is this going to be a permanent or temporary solution?". In connection to this question of temporary/permanent solution, as a layman, I would like to discuss briefly the following points which, I think, is necessary to achieve a long term solution.

a) Decentralization of market :

When I walk in the alley of 'Thangal/Paona keithel' sometimes I get a very weird feeling that nobody would survive if a strong earthquake comes suddenly. Also I cannot imagine how on earth the center of Imphal has become such a damp, suffocating and unhealthy place. It is good that we can find anything ranging from little house hold stuff to construction materials in this two market, but it is also a perfect example of complete failure on the part of city planning and negligence in the past.

With the increasing population the number of vehicles are also multiplying and therefore only widening and creation of more lanes in the surrounding main roads will not help much in achieving a long term solution to the present traffic problem. In my opinion, to make the Imphal city clean and lessen the traffic volume in the surrounding area first we need 'decentralization of market' i.e., moving strategically selected shops, building new shopping complexes or establish new markets, etc. outside the city center.

I don't believe that Imphal city is the only place good for business, other places around the city are equally good. What we need is proper planning keeping in mind the environmental issues. Decentralization will not only help in decreasing the overall traffic volume but also help in creating good road connection between different regions and thus infrastructural development is not confined to one region.

b) Promotion of public transport (through Public-Private partnership) :

In Manipur - the land of jewel we cannot find a well established and systematic public transport either from the public or private sector. I would say, we are very systematic in being unsystematic and creating chaos. Anyway, leaving aside negative criticism, let us focus on what could be done to improve the current situation. At present, there are too many private vehicles which would not have been necessary had the public transport system been functioning well.

A clearly visible moving object which creates unnecessary traffic are the 'auto rickshaws' which are everywhere like ants searching for food. It is very sad that we are facing such an unfortunate situation. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor constantly to control an arbitrary increase in the number of such small vehicles plying on the road for public transport.

The best is to promote using large vehicles like bus for public transport as it can carry more people and occupy less space on the road. This service can be introduced through public-private partnership and can be functioned under a single corporation.

Shown on the right is a picture comparing the space required to transport 60 people by car, bus and bicycle. This picture (taken in Munster city of Germany) proves with no need of any further arguments that bus is the best for carrying large number of people with least occupied space. Educating people with such picture would surely help in solving the present problem willingly.

On the other hand, it is equally important to have bus stops at appropriate places and a time table at each stop. Without a strict time table it does not make much sense having a public transport service. However, placing bus stops is a complex task where one need experts to study the dynamics of the place, and cannot be done randomly without examining the conditions of a place. To get an idea about the factors which take into account while creating bus stops please follow the link.

The concern authorities should study such "Bus Stop Location Policy" well before the full scale implementation of bus service so as to create a very effective public transport system. Recent introduction of (low floor) bus service (on trial basis) in the Imphal city is encouraging, but it looks like the above points are not taken into account properly. Moreover, the bus route should touch the outer Imphal area and if possible we can even consider extending it to farther places.

c) Role of "City Planning Office" :

The town planning department of Manipur existed since 1965, however one can find only a small number of achievements listed (only for the year 2009-2010) on the department website. Actually, many of us even don't know about the existence of a department which checks the proper/judicial use of land in the city, design the city, etc.. Anyway, the town planning department's sincere hard work for a long time is paid off by creating an uninhabitable and chaotic Imphal city. In my opinion, there has been a big communication gap among various departments responsible for city development, and only God knows what they have been dreaming for the future in the last few decades.

The town planning department is very important for creating the look and most importantly the smooth functioning of a city. The department should play the pivotal role of being a smart room designer, and educating the general public by sharing the information at right time so that people can follow new developments without any difficulty.

Nowadays, information can be shared very fast through poster, TV, internet, etc. Picture shown in the above section b) promotion of public transport: it was produced by the City Planning Office, Munster, Germany to promote the use of public transport. This is a perfect example of educating the citizens where the message is delivered clearly using less than ten words. Our planning department can also produce such meaningful picture to educate the people.

We know that the best way to learn is to study an example. So, let us take an example and analyze how places are organized around a shopping complex. Here, on the right, we see a Google's satellite image of places surrounding a shopping complex in Dresden, Germany. In the picture, only the major parking places, big shopping malls, and main public transport lines, etc. are highlighted.

The reason behind choosing this specific example is that Germany has one of the best public transport systems in the world, and since I have spent considerable amount of time in Dresden, the surrounding places of Altmarkt-Galarie is familiar to me. However, it is really not necessary to stay in a place to learn about how the place is organized.

Surrounding area of Altmarkt-Galarie: First, let us look at the parking places (symbol P) and stops for public transport (bus/tram). What is clearly visible is the ample parking places (underground parking is not displayed in the picture), and the distance of bus/tram stops and the parking places from the shopping complex. Bus/tram stops and parking places are kept at such a distance that a maximum of 2-3 minutes is needed to walk to/from the shopping complex. One may also note the distance between the Bus/tram stops.

Second, there is a wide public foot path enabling people to walk freely. Third, the public transport lines at a safe distance encircling the complex and not passing right through it. And fourth, there are open spaces for trees and plants. With this kind of city planning the city has a very clean air, less accident, easy accessibility, and people are not worried about walking a long distance to reach bus/tram stops or parking places after shopping. Everything is so well organized and punctual that people can rely on the public transport system and prefer using bus/tram as it is more economical than driving a car.

The need of the hour in our state is not only proper city planning, but "Eco-Friendly City planning". The importance of eco-friendly was realized long back in developed countries and they worked towards it sincerely, and now they are eating the fruits of the tree they planted.

A comparative study of Imphal with other cities in terms of organization would be really necessary and interesting. We hope that our town planning department is also dreaming for a green-future and will work towards it sincerely.

To many people the above mentioned points would have been a repetition, but it is necessary to remind the people from time to time regarding the implementation of updated mode of public transport system as well as the traffic rules. We all know that the overall picture of a society reflects the state of mind of the people. Seeing the present situation (corruption and chaos) in Manipur it would not be wrong to say that many people have lost their sense of judgment, self-respect and responsibility (except ego).

In my opinion, the root cause of the problems we face today lies in the attitude of the people. For example, a very sick mentality which we always see in all kinds of public work is 'mai nanlaga maning patpa' (clean face, but dirty butt). What I want to point out is that (while trying to pocket some extra bucks) the quality and fine details of the work are compromised, and most of the time people are fooled by the outer appearances. I feel that many of our good qualities and potentials are just shadowed by some of these attitude problems.

The problem lies within us and not with the central government or people staying in some other parts of the world. If we work together honestly, we should be able to change the image of our society in no time. Who/what is stopping us from creating Manipur - the land of jewel a fantastic place ?

There is no rule that Imphal/Manipur cannot become very nice and clean and have the the best public transport systems in entire India unless Delhi or some other states have it first. Let us gather our thoughts and work together sincerely to bring the change. Let the future generations witness our earnest effort by seeing a clean, eco-friendly and smoothly functioning city.