By IANS
Agra : The countdown has begun for transport companies to move out of this city of the Taj Mahal in an effort to clear the traffic mess and air pollution at the same time.
Authorities have served an ultimatum to all goods transporters asking them to shift out of Agra by Jan 21.
However, this is the umpteenth ultimatum being given to transport companies here. Marching orders have been periodically issued right from the early 1970s. But on all earlier, the transporters have succeeded in scuttling the orders.
This time, divisional commissioner S.R. Meena has asked the transporters to shift from the busy Yamuna Kinara road, Jeoni Mandi area, Free Ganj and smaller neighbourhoods inside the city to the Transport Nagar on the bypass road.
Regional Transport Officer V.K. Sonakia said: “The transport companies that have to shift have been identified and served notices. Those who have refused to accept notices have been informed through other means.”
The Yamuna Kinara road connects the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort to Etamauddaula and Ram Bagh. Tourists wanting to visit the Taj Mahal or cross over to see the other historical monuments have to wait endlessly due to traffic jams.
The Transport Nagar was established during the emergency in 1975-77 and orders issued to the transporters to move out. But the process has taken so long that even today people are sceptical about the move, which they think would again be “stalled because the transporters are no ordinary people”.
The city has more than 300 transport companies. The owners fear that if they move out their businesses will take a plunge.
The Agra Goods Carrier Association has been holding emergency sittings to chalk out its strategy. Many of its members do not have land in the Transport Nagar.
A delegation of the transporters has met the commissioner to ask him for more time and allotment of plots in the Transport Nagar.
Tourism bodies are upbeat with the decision of the district authorities to move out the transporters who they say are the chief contributors to the air pollution and constant traffic jams in the city.
District authorities have also worked out plans to shift the Uttar Pradesh state Roadways bus depot from Agra Fort to the new terminus on Delhi-Agra highway.
“If they succeed the problem of air pollution and traffic jams would be solved permanently,” said Surendra Sharma, president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.