Kenny Jyrwa

Shillong, Jan 7: With the rise in Covid cases and detection of Omicron variant in the state, Meghalaya government has re-imposed restrictions and containment measures,  and plying of private vehicles on Odd-Even arrangement in East Khasi Hills district is one such measure.

While this has caused some hardships to the citizens of East Khasi Hills, and especially Shillong city, the roads though have become much more drivable due to lack of congestion.

Under the odd-even rule, cars can be driven only on alternate days depending on the last digit (odd or even) of their registration number within East Khasi Hills district. Cars with their registration number ending on an odd digit can ply on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while cars with numbers ending on an even digit can ply on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The rule does not apply on Sundays.

As Shillong city opened up after 4-5 months of lockdown, daily traffic congestion had once again come back to haunt its citizens. A drive from Upper Shillong to Lachumiere was taking close to two hours, on average.

Speaking to Hub News, taxi drivers at Khyndai-Lad lauded the step taken by the Government stating that the Odd-Even scheme has solved the daily traffic congestion, which had hindered their daily earnings. “This rule has helped us the local taxi drivers… it’s in our favour because the traffic congestion in Shillong is hectic especially during the month of December,” said one local taxi driver.

Another driver expressed concerned on the issuing of ‘car pass’ to private vehicles. “We as taxi drivers have no issue on people getting their car passes but the concerned department should issue passes to the right people so there will never be misusing of the car passes during these days,” he said.

With roads not becoming any wider in the capital city, the odd-even may be the only viable solution to bring down the traffic congestion in the city at the moment. However, for the longer run, a better alternate plan needs to be planned or a better mode of public transportation.