SHILLONG AN URBAN CHAOS

To ease traffic congestion, the East Khasi Hills District administration has revised school timings in Laitumkhrah area and set strict new guidelines for local taxis.
East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, Bhalang Dhar addressing the press said, schools in Laitumkhrah area would have on an experimental basis three sets of timings.
Some of the major School’s of Shillong are all located in Laitumkhrah area. During school hours, the traffic, taking a circuitous route from Dhanketi point and moving towards Laitumkhrah and ending at Dhanketi, comes to a standstill.
To ease the problem, St. Mary’s, St. Margaret and Loreto Convent would now start at 8 am., instead of 9 am. St. Anthony’s and St. Edmund’s would begin at their usual time (9 am) together with St. Peter’s, Kiddies’ Corner, Presbyterian School and others.
Nursery to KG class students in the area would go to school at 10 am now as per the new guideline. The new timings announced today would come into effect from next Monday, the DC informed. A decision to have new timings for junior schools is yet to be set.
The DC said the government-constituted committee to find ways to ease transport congestion, of which he is the Chairman, has found it “non-viable” to instruct schools to have school buses.
“There are 7300 school students in Higher Secondary schools. This is only in some of the major schools and not taking into account junior and other smaller schools in the area,” Dhar said.
He added, for all these students 146 school buses would be required, which would further aggravate Laitumkhrah’s traffic congestion. “So the committee felt the best alternative was to try this new model out,” Dhar observed.
The committee would meet again on June 27 and finally submit its report to the government on July 1.
Meanwhile, the administration has earmarked specific embarkment and dis-embarkment points for passengers of local taxis. 16 cameras would keep a watchful eye on violators at different locations of the city.
“For first and second offense, permit and drivers licenses would be suspended for one and two months respectively. But for third violation, both the permit and license would be cancelled,” Dhar warned.
The DC, also the Chairman of the Regional Transport Authority, warned Taxi drivers not to arbitrarily hike taxi fares, after fuel price was raised throughout the country.