FOR A BETTER COOCH BEHAR

Revamping of traffic system on the pipeline

In an aim to revamp the traffic system in Cooch Behar town  a team of senior officials visited different road crossings and congested streets on Sunday. In the visiting team there were Cooch Behar DM Ms Smaraki Maharaki Mahapatra, ADM Mr Sudip Mitra, SP Mr Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, Cooch Behar Municipality chairman Mr Biren Kundu and Cooch Behar RTO chief Mr Aftab Ahmed.

Cooch Behar is considered as a heritage town with beautifully planned roads and streets. The town was built with a scientific view in the regimes of the Maharajas. But, these days the town is suffering from traffic problems due to population hike. Streets are becoming narrow following illegal encroachments, building of unauthorised stalls and other constructions. A few years ago the civic body took a move to evict the encroachers. In that drive the streets turned a bit wider. But as days passed by the situation turned worse. The traffic system turned bad due to rise of vehicles and population in the town. The traffic signal lights have also gone out of order. Also, it is hard to find out traffic personnel at the road crossings during the busy hours. Following the breaking down of the system the number of road accidents is on the rise, senior citizens believe.

Probably realising the condition that the citizens are experiencing the district administration came out to streamline the system. A team of high-level officials visited different areas on Sunday to study the unhealthy situation. Cooch Behar DM Ms Smaraki Mahapatra told reporters that they would revamp the traffic system. All are expected to follow the new system strictly, she hoped. A new route chart would be imposed in the town and the traffic signals would be restored very soon, she added.

Cooch Behar Municipality chairman Mr Biren Kundu said that movement of more and more vehicles in the town made the traffic system more problematic. He assured that quick and effective steps would be taken to make the situation better by making the traffic movement smoother.