Srinagar, Oct 16 (KNO): The Jammu and Kashmir administration has allocated Rs 13.99 crore for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Srinagar, with work underway at Batamaloo, Harwan and Bemina, as Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Friday reviewed measures to ease traffic congestion and improve road safety in Jammu and Srinagar.
The Multi-Disciplinary Committee (MDC) on Traffic Management, according to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), reviewed parking, public transport, road infrastructure, enforcement and implementation of recommendations of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCoRS).
The meeting was informed that the Pantha Chowk charging station, with a capacity for 100 buses, has been developed, while the Zoonimar station is functional for 15 vehicles. Charging stations at Batamaloo, Harwan and Bemina are under execution under the ₹13.99-crore allocation.
In Jammu, sites have been handed over to the Transport Department under the PM E-Drive scheme, with ₹15 crore allocated and civil works for an electric bus depot underway.
Seventeen roadside parking sites have been identified in Jammu, of which three are functional and seven allotted to vendors. In Srinagar, an IT-based Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system is monitoring 300 parking spaces at key locations.
Dulloo directed the municipal corporations to regularly inspect traffic signage and create additional parking spaces to reduce congestion caused by unregulated parking.
He also called for upgrading the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) in both cities with facial recognition capabilities to strengthen enforcement and road safety.
The Traffic Department was directed to analyse e-DAR data to identify accident-prone locations and deploy personnel at identified hotspots and blackspots.
The meeting was informed that Jammu generated 1,75,384 e-challans involving ₹20.20 crore between January and July 2026, while Srinagar generated 1,04,311 challans involving ₹10.50 crore.
Together, 2,79,695 e-challans involving ₹30.70 crore were generated during the seven months. Of these, 14,677 were disposed of and ₹1.23 crore realised.
Dulloo also sought a proposal to strengthen safety audits of heavy passenger vehicles, particularly school buses, and called for an effective grievance redressal mechanism under PM-RAHAT for road accident victims.
The Transport Department said 68,000 vehicle registration certificates had been cancelled for repeated violations.
Since 2021, ₹18.14 crore has been allocated under Road Safety Funds, of which ₹13.83 crore has been utilised for traffic monitoring and enforcement equipment, including body-worn cameras, interceptor vehicles, cranes, breath analysers and first-responder kits.
No-honking zones have also been mapped at 29 major institutional locations in Jammu and 12 in Srinagar—(KNO)