Srinagar, Dec 16: The newly demarcated sections of Srinagar Smart City roads promise to make cycling enjoyable and walking aesthetically pleasing, but fail dismally to allow ambulances to pass smoothly.
There are no expressways for ambulances and no traffic plans to clear the way for a vehicle rushing a patient to the hospital, even as the Golden Hour slips away minute by minute in traffic jams.
Recently, the Srinagar administration brainstormed the Sonarkol Road Project for “ambulances and commuters”.
The administration said the alternate route to SMHS Hospital, Super Specialty Hospital, and other hospitals would reduce travel time and offer a sustainable solution to traffic congestion along this critical corridor.
According to stakeholders, routes that bypass market areas and densely populated zones on hospital stretches are a vital lifeline that the J&K government must prioritise.
Traffic snarls are not merely a daily nuisance in Kashmir.
They can cost lives.
With no dedicated lanes or express routes for ambulances, emergencies often turn into tragedies.
In J&K, road traffic accidents are common and frequently result in casualties or critical injuries.
In addition, patients suffering strokes, heart attacks, falls, burns, electrocutions, and other medical emergencies are brought from across Kashmir to SKIMS Soura or SMHS Hospital for specialised treatment.
Over the years, people have voiced concern about patients routinely arriving late at these hospitals.
Sometimes, the consequences are fatal.
Many vehicles on the road do part ways for blaring sirens, yet ambulances frequently get trapped in gridlock caused by massive volumes of cars, public transport and unregulated parking.
Vendor encroachments create another layer of delay.
For those transporting loved ones in private vehicles during an emergency, the situation is even dire.
No amount of honking can ease the passage to the hospital.
It can become a death sentence.
Roads leading to SKIMS Soura and SMHS Hospital are in a state of despair – narrow at many points and narrowed further by divisions into cycle tracks, footpaths, dividers, and encroaching elements.
Vehicles struggle to navigate stretches such as Karan Nagar, Jehangir Chowk, Athwajan-Pantha Chowk, Batamaloo-Qamarwari, Shalteng and Noorbagh-Safakadal, among others.
These roads have been consistently devastating when it comes to rapid patient transport.
As per hospital records and social media reports, many patients reach hospitals late – often beyond the point at which their lives, hearts, brains, limbs and organs could have been saved.
“Every second counts in an emergency, but for us, traffic turned minutes into eternities,” said Aisha Malik of Pampore, whose father suffered a heart attack in October this year. “He was gasping and sinking, and we kept honking and blaring the siren.”
Although the family used an ambulance to ferry him to SMHS Hospital, it took nearly one and a half hours to arrive, after getting stuck at Pantha Chowk and Jehangir Chowk.
“The helplessness of even those commuters who want to help an ambulance is heartbreaking,” Malik said.
Health advocates, social activists and citizens have consistently urged the government to prioritise emergency lanes and digital traffic management systems to ensure smoother passage for ambulances.
