Traffic logjam on Mango bridge a concern for people

Jamshedpur: Traffic snarls on the Jay Prakash Narayan Sethu at Mango on Thursday has become a routine affair. The cascading effect of the jam is felt in all the roads that are connected to the bridge on both sides of the river.
Even ambulances are stuck in the jam. The bridge connects densely populated Mango and other residential areas near the national highway with Jamshedpur where state-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) and Tata Main Hospital (TMH).
Asha Devi, who lives in Mango area, said for few years after the bridge was constructed, the traffic issue was eased as earlier there was too much pressure on the small old bridge over Subarnarekha river. But now things have changed and traffic chaos is a regular affair on both the bridges.
Devi, who is a banker, has to go to Agrico area everyday crossing the bridge. She said that it takes more than one-and-half-hours to travel a distance of 6km in her car in peak hours.
The situation is no different when schools start and close. Students have to sit in their vehicles and patiently wait as traffic moves at a snail’s pace on the bridge.
Pool car driver Samresh Sansoa said often parents scold him as children reach school late, but he said that it is not in his hands as often the traffic situation on the bridge gets bad to worse and vehicles hardly move for more than 30 minutes there.
He said heavy trucks carrying goods to various factories cause a lot of traffic problems in the area. The buses from the inter-state bus terminus are also parked near the roundabout at the entrance of the bridge on the Sakchi side.
DSP traffic, Kamal Kishore, said illegal parking of all kinds of vehicles on the roads connecting the bridge is the primary reason for traffic jams there. He said the administration tows away vehicles parked illegally but the offenders don’t seem to care.