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Call to streamline traffic at Kohora Chariali

By Debasish Baruah

KAZIRANGA, Feb 14 - Concern for the safety of school as well as college-going students has been raised by various sections of the society here in recent times due to absence of a traffic signal point at Kohora Chariali, besides speed reduction measures.

It may be mentioned that many educational institutions, including high schools and a college are located almost adjacent to National Highway-37 passing through Kaziranga area. A sizeable section of parents here have no other option but to remain on tenterhooks all day long until their wards return home safe and sound in the evening.

According to Dande Gogoi, Headmaster of Kaziranga National Park High School at Kohora, it is essential to have one traffic signal point at Kohora Chariali, since at times there is complete chaos witnessed during peak hours, especially after the final school bell rings.

There are three schools at Kohora, including Rising Sun English School, Sankardev Shisu Niketan and Kaziranga National Park ME and High School. Approximately 600 school-going students cross Kohora point on a daily basis. But due to non existence of a traffic signal point till date, the aforementioned schoolchildren often face serious difficulties while crossing from one end of the road to the other as an unending flow of speedy vehicles criss-cross the area under reference.

Secondly, jeep safari and other tourist permit vehicles while moving towards their respective safari points too cause serious traffic snarls off and on. It is very important to have some kind of regulation in terms of speed reduction measures soon for the safety of the school-going kids.

Similarly, in a locality like Diring, where Kaziranga High School, including an ME school and a college are located, it is important to have speed-breakers or any speed reduction measures as more than 300 school-going students cross Diring Chariali, said Mukul Bora, a senior teacher of Kaziranga High School at Diring area of Kaziranga.

He also added that eye-catching display boards should be placed at vulnerable places along the route so as to warn the drivers of speeding vehicles, including trucks and heavy passenger buses, to reduce speed on the stretch.

Sources at the National Highways Authority of India said that if necessary schools and colleges may place an application at their offices requesting speed-breakers near their educational institutions. Once it is received by them, it would then be forwarded to the appropriate authority, which will then be subsequently sent to the respective ministry for approval. Once okayed, the speed-breakers would be allowed to be placed near those institutions.

Dande Gogoi also informed this correspondent that they had already placed an application before the PWD at Bokakhat this year requesting construction of speed-breakers near their school, though work on the project is yet to start.

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