CHANDIGARH, Oct 19: In view of the inconvenience suffered by city residents during road repairs, the residents favour that road re-carpeting should be done during night time as traffic is disrupted during the day, causing harassment to the road users.Commuters who use buses face the worst. One does not even come to know if there is a diversion on the road and the buses drop the passengers on the diversion, from where they have to walk. "The public should be informed before hand in which part of the city roads are to be laid, so that one can take an alternative route,'' said Harpreet Kaur, a daily commuter.Amarjit Singh was of the view that if you have alternative road arrangements, then it is okay to lay roads in the morning, otherwise, he says they should be laid at night. "It's a problem all over. Rules should be framed regarding traffic diversions,'' he says.Mandeep Singh, who was on his way to Nangal, says it's quite misleading for a person who is coming from outside, as that person is not familiar with the city and thus loses way. The road re-carpeting business should be carried out at night as the volume of traffic is also less and it means less inconvenience for the common man, he says."If roads are blocked during the day, it's difficult to earn a livelihood. We have to travel extra distance to cover the same distance and commuters start haggling," said Pankaj Mandal, an auto-rickshaw driver.A government employee, Yaswant Khanna remarked that while going to office, there is always a rush on the road, leading to traffic problems. "Once near Transport Light point I had to wait for half an hour and was late for an important work. The best and the only solution to this problem is that roads should be re-carpeted during night time,'' he says.A traffic police constable, Satpal, was of the opinion that road repairs shouldn't be done on working days and work should be taken up during night, holidays or weekends only. "Workers can be paid an incentive for working at odd hours and holidays. Due to all the problems, the masses feel harassed and blame us for the trouble,'' he said."It's a trouble, particularly if road-laying is done during day time. If a particular part of the road is closed, it remains closed for traffic at night also, as the heavy equipment is not removed from the road after it has been laid. And if the driver stops a bus for minute, we are blamed for blocking the whole road. This is because there is no traffic management and accidents are common. Forget about laying roads, it is a continuous chain. Whom to organise and whom not to,'' said Krishan Singh, a bus driver.
