Rush-hour traffic management on Gandhi Setu showed partial result on Wednesday even as the Hajipur end of the arterial bridge remained chock-a-block for commuters.
Those driving towards Hajipur from Patna experienced hassle-free traffic on Gandhi Setu.
The ground reality was no different in Hajipur despite additional police force had been provided to regulate traffic in the district headquarters town of Vaishali and the Gandhi Setu approach road.
On the contrary, there was no jam at the 5.757km bridge from Patna end. The Patna traffic police introduced lane driving on Tuesday making it mandatory for all types of vehicles, which eased the congestion on the bridge to a great extent. "I took 20 minutes to cross the bridge and reached Hajipur. This is perhaps the first occasion in the past several years when there was no traffic jam on the bridge, which connects north Bihar with the capital. It was a wonderful experience," said Dipak Tiwary, an employee of a building construction company.
Dipak was among those commuters who sent SMS texts to Patna traffic superintendent of police Prantosh Kumr Das for doing good job. There was no complaint of traffic snarl right from Zero Mile to the bridge, which often remained clogged during the peak hours. The situation in Hajipur, however, was different. "It took more than one-and a-half hours to cover a distance of 3km from the Hajipur end of Gandhi Setu to Dighi railway crossing," said Rekha Kumari, a teacher of a government school at Patepur in Vaishali district.
A number of vehicles, both commercial and passengers, remained stuck in the severe jam at different points such as Ganga bridge police station, Paswan Chowk, Ramashish Chowk and Dighi railway crossing. People had to wait for several hours to reach their destinations.
While Vaishali superintendent of police Chandrika Prasad remained incommunicado throughout the day, his subordinate and in-charge of traffic in Hajipur, Avanish Kumar, said: "The breakdown of several vehicles led to traffic bottleneck at different points in the town."
He admitted that both the commuters and the police had a tough time to deal with the heavy flow of vehicles. "We have decided to implement the previous order issued by the headquarters to bring the situation under control," he told The Telegraph over phone.
The previous order said all commercial vehicles coming to Patna from Hajipur would be stopped in Hajipur and would not move further between 8am and 11am and 4pm and10 pm. "We have already identified the spots where these vehicles would be parked," Avanish added.
Over 40 policemen drawn from different districts have already reached Hajipur and they would be deployed for regulating the traffic. "Lane driving has been introduced on the bridge from Hajipur end also," he claimed.
Efforts to contact Vaishali district magistrate Vinod Singh Jungiyal also proved futile. However, a source said the work at the Ekahara railway crossing has started. The work on the railway bridge at Dighi would also resume soon. The railway crossings at the two places, particularly at Dighi, are major causes of traffic congestion in Hajipur.
On average, 75,000 vehicles cross Gandhi Setu everyday.
