The Meghalaya High Court has observed that other measures need also to be adopted to ease the congestion on the roads, whether by building roads, parking lots, making one-way streets or other form of regulation.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W. Diengdoh heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one Philip Khrawbok Shati on the traffic congestion in Shillong, particularly around the central business district and Kachari area.
A status report has been filed by the State pertaining to the traffic situation in the city of Shillong. Certain immediate, short-term, mid-term and long-term proposals have also been indicated.
The most commendable aspect of the matter is the short time within which an initiative has been taken to procure a large number of buses for ferrying school children and to ensure that individual cars do not have to come to drop the children to school or pick them up thereafter. Indeed, despite school buses being available, parents or guardians of wards are more concerned with the security of the school going children, particularly girls, and may not be inclined to allow them to use buses or public transport even if that entails a considerable degree of inconvenience to the parents or guardians.
However, it has been reported in newspapers and corroborated by Mr Khan appearing for the State, that CCTVs have been fitted in the buses and an App has been circulated or will be circulated to the parents for the parents to follow, real-time, the location of the buses and what may be going on inside such buses.
“The system, called the Real-Time Passenger Information System, is almost revolutionary and should allay all the misgivings a concerned parent or guardian may have as to the security of the school going child travelling in a bus”, the Bench observed.
In addition, if the proposed flyover between Rilbong and Jhalupara materialises, a lot of the traffic congestion at the entry point of Shillong would have been eased. The State should continue the good effort in such regard , the Court said.
Matter is listed on July 7, 2023 for further hearing.