GTA plans alternate route from Darjeeling to Sikkim, Kalimpong to reduce traffic snarls

EOI, DARJEELING, MAY 29, 2023 : To curb the hours-long traffic jams being seen in a daily basis in the hill town, the Darjeeling Police on Monday issued a helpline number where people could make any complaints regarding traffic violations causing traffic snarls. 

On the other hand, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was found announcing the construction of an alternate route. 

Announcing the helpline number, Darjeeling Superintendent of Police Praween Prakash said: “People can now make complaints on the number 9147889073 which is our traffic control room. 

This also has Whats App in it and people can send pictures of the traffic violations being done like parking in no parking zones or vehicles needlessly stopping in places among other things. 

We will verify it once we get the complaint and action will be taken. The name of the complainant will however be kept a secret. This step is mainly being taken in view of the daily traffic jam in Darjeeling especially due to the heavy flow of tourists during this season. We are finding that one of the main reasons traffic jams are being caused is due to people not following the traffic rules that have been set,” he added. 

According to him, the main reason traffic jams were being seen was due to issues like random picking and dropping off tourists by vehicles even though there being pick up and dropping points in different parts of Darjeeling with another major reason for the traffic jam being parking in narrow road stretches in front of hotels. 

“More police force has been deployed to handle the traffic problem and I would like to request the people to follow the traffic rules and maintain discipline or we will be forced to take action,” he said. 

On the other hand, in an event at Darjeeling Chowrasta during the day, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Tourism department Sabhashad Norden Sherpa said that the that the GTA was all set to start the construction of an alternative road from Lebong to 3rd Mile (Kaliimpong Road) via Pandam. 

“Work for this route will now start and once completed it will lessen the traffic load in the present route as vehicles going to places like Glenburn, Kalimpong, Sikkim among other places can use this route,” he said. The GTA said that this 13.5 km stretch was being made at a cost of Rs 11 crore. 

Meanwhile, to combat frauds being done to tourists, the Darjeeling Police during the day issued a QR code which when scanned would have information about proper hotels and homestays in Darjeeling which they had verified. 

“The QR code will be put up in different parts of Darjeeling with this information also to be available in their police website www.darjeelingpolice.org .

We have got information from different places that tourists who are booking hotels get conned when they search for hotels in Darjeeling through Google as fake sites have been created by some fraudsters who also charge them advance,” said the Darjeeling SP. 

“The information provided in our website and QR code has authentic hotels and homestays mentioned in it with their phone numbers. If we have missed any hotel or homestay then can contact us. I also request the homestay and hotel owners to complain to the police if they find any fake website created in their name or their picture used in the net. These websites will be removed by the police,” said Prakash.