Citizen moves HC for ban on trucks in Nagpur

NAGPUR: Saddened by the loss of lives in mishaps due to unrestricted entry of trucks in the city, a businessman has moved the high court here seeking to ban their entry.
A bench of Justices Vasanti Naik and Pukhraj Bora issued notices to the respondents Maharashtra's transport secretary, Nagpur commissioner of police and superintendent, DCP (Traffic), and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner asking them to reply by November 12.Mohit Khajanchi was the counsel for petitioner Amol Khante, who runs CAC-All Rounder that conducts adventure activities at Nagpur and Ramtek.
The petitioner demanded directives to the respondents to come out with an interim arrangement to prevent entry of heavy vehicles into the city without any loading/unloading work until a permanent solution is found to end the traffic congestion. Khajanchi informed that during early 1970s and 80s, even though the city had two major highways NH6 (East West) and NH7 (North South) passing through, there were no major industrial or trade centres and traffic was minimal. The trucks used to ply from Central Avenue. With a sharp rise in number of vehicles over the years, their movement was diverted through Great Nag Road.
When Narendra Nagar Outer Ring Road was completed in 1995, the truck traffic was moved there. However, with the city growing, even that road came within the city's jurisdiction. Now, the outer ring road has been thrown open for heavy vehicles but accidents continue to take a toll of citizens as these vehicles still ply within the city due to apathy of the traffic police, the petition said.
Earlier, the petitioner submitted 'Comprehensive Mobility Plan' for Nagpur, published by the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) that contained road network characteristics and parking details as well as number of registered vehicles and accident records for five years. Citing the plan, he contended it demonstrated that a jump in the vehicular traffic coupled with narrow roads often led to congestions and jams. He alleged that in absence of footpath for pedestrians and unregulated zebra crossings had led to large number of fatal accidents. Unauthorized parking on both sides of roads in commercial areas and encroachment by heavy vehicles, hawkers and shopkeepers also contributed to accidents.
Khante pointed out that DCP (Traffic) had imposed a ban on trucks bound for other places into the city on April 30 but it remained on paper.