Katihar administration evicts vendors from roadside

KORHA (KATIHAR): The makeshift shops, fruit vendors and fish markets on both sides of the service road along the National Highway-31 were removed on Wednesday as part of the anti-encroachment drive at Gerabari Chowk under Korha block of the district, giving much-needed relief to hapless constables manning the traffic intersection there.
The traffic at the crossover point will now be smooth because small vehicles will take the route of service roads.It will also prevent accidents and solve the perennial problem of traffic snarls on this stretch of the NH-31.
Katihar SP Vikas Kumar said the anti-encroachment drive was being carried out to streamline vehicular traffic on the particular stretch of the highway. “It will also check accidents to some extent,” he said.
A senior police officer and some residents, on the condition of anonymity, said at least four spots — near a petrol pump on NH-31, the entry and exit points of one of the service roads and the Katihar-Gerabari-Falka road intersection — are the ‘black spots’ from where the maximum number of trauma cases were reported to Korha community health centre.
As per the Katihar administration data of accidents near Gerabari Chowk, one person was killed in 2017, four in 2018 and two persons lost their lives in 2019. At Kurshela Chowk, one person died in a road accident in 2017, three in 2018 and two persons lost their lives in 2019.
Similarly, four persons were killed in 2017, one in 2018 and three in 2019 in toad accidents at Kurshela near Devipur on NH-31.
Home guard constable Md Zafar Khan, who was regulating traffic at Gerabari crossover point, said, “Removal of shops and vendors from both sides of the service road will help in regulating traffic as well as checking accidents. The situation has improved today.”