Vehicles ply through the SCB hospital campus. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, July 6: City police are finally going to put a check on the unrestricted flow of vehicular traffic through SCB Medical College and Hospital here.

The entire stretch of road passing through the hospital campus connecting Ranihat and Mangalabag will be out of bounds for the commuters soon with the police having decided to declare the particular road as a “no–vehicle zone”.

“According to the decision taken at the traffic management committee meeting, no vehicles would be allowed to enter the hospital campus from the Ranihat side, while the road connecting Mangalabag would be a no-vehicle zone from July 19,” said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

Arora said only ambulances, casualty vehicles and those carrying emergency patients would be allowed to enter the hospital from the Ranihat gate on the western side.

The officials of the public works department have been asked to install barricades leaving space for one vehicle to pass through.

All vehicles, including that of patients, will also be allowed to enter the hospital through Mangalabag gate on the eastern side, while the vehicles can exit the campus through the Ranihat gate.

All the vehicles have to take a left after entering the campus from the Mangalabag side and can only exit through Ranihat side gate.

Hospital officials, on the other hand, said adequate personnel would be provided to assist the traffic officials in regulating traffic on the campus. A paid parking lot in front of the outpatient department has been developed for those visiting the hospital for treatment and meeting patients.

Earlier, general commuters, not visiting the hospital, used to use the thoroughfare of the hospital campus to travel from Ranihat to Mangalabag and vice versa in order to avoid the rush and congestion on the main road.

This was creating problems, especially for the vehicles engaged in the transportation of patients from one department to the other.

Major departments, including trauma and casualty, medicine, surgery, eye departments, are located on both sides of the main road on the hospital campus.

“The decision to restrict vehicular flow on the hospital campus was a long-pending issue and we are hopeful that the move will benefit the patients coming to the premier state run hospital,” said Kishore Mohanty, a local resident.

Mohanty said traffic officials should also ensure that there was no obstruction in the flow of traffic from Mangalabag to SCB hospital.

Senior officials of the city police said there were a lot of roadside encroachments on the entrance as well as the main road leading to SCB. The issue would be discussed with the officials of Cuttack Municipal Corporation for necessary action at the earliest.