By Aabshar H Quazi (From Kota, RAJASTHAN)
Kota, with its reputation as India’s top ‘coaching city’, is well on its way to acquiring another distinction. Work is under way to make Kota the country’s first and the world’s only second ‘traffic light free city’. With this move, the Rajasthan government aims to make Kota an accident-free city with smooth traffic flow.
The city has a large population of students enrolled at its teeming coaching centres. Increasing vehicular traffic and the resultant gridlock is a perennial problem for the city’s inhabitants but that is set to change as the Urban Development and Housing Ministry of the Rajasthan government is helming large-scale infrastructure development near the coaching hub of Kota with a view to easing gridlock on the city roads.
More than half-dozen flyovers and underpasses are being constructed in the city and nearing completion at an expenditure of over Rs300 crore.
The new flyovers and underpasses, once completed, are expected to bump off Kota’s gridlock problem, which can be attributed to the expansion of the city and its burgeoning student population over the years. That’s the main reason the Urban Development and Housing Ministry has been working to develop Kota into a ‘traffic light free city’.
Rajasthan’s Urban Development and Housing Minister, Shanti Dhariwal, has said that commuters would no longer have to stop at traffic lights and the traffic would move sans snarls.
“Kota city has a population of 14 lakhs. There are 20 crossroads in the city and there are seven ‘busiest’ crossroads where traffic lights lead to traffic congestion in a stretch of nearly 15 km from the railway station to Anantpura Chauraha,” he said.
The construction of underpasses has been completed while work on flyover is under way and will be finished within a few months, he added.
The government is constructing a flyover each at Ananpura crossroad at a cost of Rs 70 crore, in front of City Mall on Jhalawar Road at a cost of Rs 46.35 crore and at Indira Gandhi Tiraha at Gumanpura Market in Kota city at a cost of Rs 55.40 crores, he said.
Also, underpasses are being constructed – at Antaghar at a cost of Rs 23.96 crore, at Aerodrome Circle at a cost of Rs 50 crores and at Gobariya Baori at a cost of Rs 20.89 crore. Further, a grade separator is under construction at Kotri Chauraha so that traffic can move on this 15-km straight stretch of road on Kota-Jhalawar Road without disruption, the minister said.
“Thimpu in Bhutan is the only city of the world which has no traffic lights. So, Kota city will become be the world’s second and India’s first city sans traffic lights, which would not only make traffic smooth but also help in averting road mishaps,” he added.
Anoop Bartariya, a leading architect of Rajasthan who is involved in the underpasses and other development projects of Kota, said the underpasses are being constructed as per international standards with beautiful parks and landscaping along the underpasses.
Kota, a city located in the southeast of Rajasthan, is about 240 km south of the state capital of Jaipur.
(The writer can be reached at aabshar.quazi@htlive.com)
