United Democratic Party (UDP) senior member Allantry F Dkhar has suggested that Shillong adopt an Aizawl style of traffic management to free the state capital from its seemingly insurmountable road woes.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, the UDP’s Shillong city general secretary said that too much time is wasted in traffic jams by the populace.
“It is my humble suggestion that if we implement a system, currently operational in the capital town of Mizoram, Aizawl, this problem that we are facing can be suitably addressed,” Dkhar said.
The system would restrict cars whose licence plates end in 0 and 1 to plying on Mondays, 2 and 3 on Tuesdays, etc, with no limits on the weekends. This would effectively be an extended version of the odd-even rule that the state government had introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The odd-even system applied Monday to Saturday, with those with special passes and exceptions able to ignore the rule.
“However, augmentation of public transportation services to cater to the demand that will arise [from the Aizawl system] should be first addressed before implementation of the said system. Strict enforcement of the said system would also be warranted,” Dkhar added.
Aizawl is famous nationally for its disciplined observance of traffic rules but whether that can be easily transplanted to Shillong remains unknown.
