Of late, the roads of Jammu have started looking very colourful with bright signages, walkways and parking. The freshly painted roads are an initiative under the Jammu Smart City programme to implement sound traffic management in the city.
Jammu Municipal Commissioner and CEO of Jammu Smart City, Avny Lavasa, is the main person behind such an initiative as she plans to make the city more organised. In an exclusive interview to Indian Masterminds, she speaks about the Smart City Jammu initiative to create technically sound traffic management in the city.
FOCUSING ON MINUTE DETAILS
Jammu Smart City project is not only focusing on the integrated traffic management system alone, which is capital intensive and needs different kinds of equipments, technology, security etc. It is also experimenting with other techniques which are low cost and effective at the same time.
Ms. Avny Lavasa explained, “Integrated traffic management is followed in most of the big cities but it is not the only way out to maintain sound traffic management. It is an ongoing process which we are also following, but this alone does not suffice. In Jammu, we took an experimental step last month which is low cost and simple. It includes markings, ensuring organized parking and trying to solve all the small problems due to which there is inconvenience on the roads.”
The initiative is an extension of a project called IT-based car parking which is being carried out under the smart city programme. Ms. Lavasa said, “Under this project, we are marking parking slots and creating paid parking. There is an app too, where people can pre-book their parking. Starting with the first major junction, we have earmarked space for pedestrians, bus lanes and similarly for other vehicles also. This is an ongoing process and will be carried out at every major junction of the city.”
TESTING THE IDEA
The initial plan was to implement the idea from 1st to 3rd October this year at Jammu parade intersection. However, the officials will now wait and see how the people respond to it for a month. Giving an example, Ms. Lavasa said “As we created space for pedestrians and other vehicles on road, we will observe it for a month and wherever it is successful, we will make it a permanent intervention. These things are pretty dynamic and the mixed responses we get from different people will lead us to judge whether the initiative is working or not.”
The survey of the parking slots and IT enablement of parking has been completed and the Jammu Smart City aims to create close to 2000 parking slots in the city. According to the officer, if everything goes as planned, the initiative will be replicated in other junctions by the end of this month.
The locals and the public vehicle unions like the Matador Union in the city are happy to see such kind of traffic intitatives in the city. Jammu people are now looking forward to getting their own dedicated lanes which will help them to travel in an organised manner.
