Gangtok District Police share 1st week assessment of Odd/Even Rule
Gangtok Saturday, June 11, 2022:
Many people in the state are enjoying their off as it is the second Saturday of the month, but most private vehicle owners in the Gangtok Municipal area are happy that they needn’t be worried about commuting under the odd and even restrictions.
Transport Department, Government of Sikkim, had issued a notification on June 2nd, imposing Odd-Even restrictions on private four wheelers from June 6th, 2022, “within the jurisdiction of Municipal Area of Gangtok”.
According to the notification the restrictions had been imposed “in the interest of public safety and convenience and in order to minimise the non-essential movement of vehicles for the better traffic management in Municipal Area of Gangtok”.
However, two wheelers, vehicles of health services, police services, banking services, fire services, essential services, private vehicles registered outside the state and not stationed in Gangtok, medical emergency and media personnel were exempted from the restrictions with the production of valid ID cards or relevant documents to the authorities policing the vehicle movement.
The Gangtok District Police have shared their assessment of the first week of odd-even restrictions in which the Average Travelling Time ( during peak hours, that is 9:30 AM onwards were this way
1. Ranipool to Titanic Gangtok ( 9:45 am onwards )
Monday : 62 minutes
Tuesday : 60 minutes
Wednesday: 55 minutes
Thursday : 50 minutes
Friday : 50 minutes
The Police shared that previously the travelling time was above 1hr 30 mins.
The assessment also showed the number of Vehicles between Ranipool and Gangtok in which 1350 plus vehicles came up and 1300 plus vehicles travelled down.
The breakdown of what types of vehicles plied were this way:
Coming Up
1. Govt Vehicles : 120 plus
2. Private Vehicles : 300 plus
3 . Taxi Vehicles : 800 plus
Going Down
1. Govt Vehicles : 110 plus
2. Private vehicles : 260 plus
3. Taxi Vehicles : 800 plus
The police also shared average time from DAC to Hospital Dara which was 20 minutes and the average time from DAC to Amdo Golai was observed to be 28 minutes
The police also shared that at one point of time there are more than 2600 vehicles between Ranipool and Gangtok.
The assessment has shown that there has been a tangible amount of reduction in traffic/the time taken to commute between Ranipool and Gangtok. However, netizens have demanded more to the odd/even restrictions like alternate sources of commute for workers like one stop buses, carpooling mandates for government workers, and odd/even restrictions for taxis and government vehicles.
