Officials don't take chief minister Nitish Kumar's words seriously, if the traffic snarl problem on Gandhi Setu - the bridge connecting north Bihar with the city - is any indication.

A week after Nitish directed officials to depute a dedicated team to address the bridge traffic problem, there has been no change on the ground. Nitish had issued the directive last Tuesday (May 5).

When The Telegraph visited the bridge on Monday, it found only a few constables with sticks in hand. Some were busy collecting money from buses and trucks crossing the bridge despite being overloaded. The same was the case with vehicles caught overtaking.

Buses continued to stop at both ends of the bridge to pick up more passengers, obstructing vehicular movement. The chief minister had given specific instructions to check overloading and overtaking on the bridge.

Anisabad resident Ratnesh Kumar, headed for Hajipur on Monday, was angry. "This bus has not moved an inch in the past half-an-hour, busy picking up passengers. There is now a long queue of vehicles."

Rules say drivers who stop their buses should pay Rs 500 in fine. But Ratnesh says the police take their cut and look the other way. "The chief minister holds meetings in air-conditioned rooms. He should take this route to understand our woes."

During the May 5 meeting at Samvad, Nitish had stressed on deputation of a special task force on the bridge, coordination between Patna and Vaishali police, coordination between road construction and transport departments and keeping a close eye on overloading and overtaking by vehicles among others.

Evidently, the instructions are not being followed. Vehicles were crawling at a snail's pace on the Setu, also because of ongoing repair work on the western flank of the 44th span. For a 500m stretch, only one side of the road is used for to and fro journeys, leading to traffic jams till Hajipur. The 44th span (Patna-end) on the western flank of the bridge was closed in December 2013 after it plunged two feet below normal. Nitish had asked for installation of a divider on the one-way stretch but it had not been done till Monday.

On May 6, Arvind Kumar Singh and his wife Sheela Singh hired a taxi from Darbhanga to catch a flight to Delhi. They set out around 1pm but missed the flight, reaching Patna airport around 7.20pm, five minutes before its scheduled departure. The couple was forced to buy another ticket, worth Rs 19,500, for the next morning's flight. The authorities adjusted Rs 7,500 from the earlier ticket, forcing the couple to face a loss of Rs 12,000.

Similarly, it took A.K. Thakur, a government official posted in central Bihar, over three hours to reach Patna from Hajipur on Sunday (May 10).

Asked about the failure of officials concerned to implement the chief minister's directive, chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said: "We are looking for a long-term solution, for which we are forming a very good plan. The dedicated team would be in place by this week and it would be given necessary equipment to handle bridge traffic. There would also be a control room, helpline number and officials would be deputed with walkie-talkies and other facilities to address traffic related issues at the bridge."