Despite the fact many auto-rickshaws are helping few hundreds of unemployed people of the state directly by providing a job as a source of earning for their income and as a means of transport to those who cannot own auto wheeler or a car, it does more harm to the people affecting the environment and making the Imphal city highly congested day by day.
Imphal, the epicentre of all commercial activities where businessmen, traders and vendors from all the districts transact their business, have now been made so congested with thronging of so many diesel autos, Tata magic etc. As a measure taken up by traffic police to control traffic congestion, movement of auto Rikshaws in queue along a rope line is witnessed in imphal city.
According to a data received from Transport department, till December, 2012, about 2, 24,056 vehicles including both heavy and light vehicles got registered with transport department in the state. Out of this, around 1.05 lakh of vehicles were registered from Imphal West district alone while around 19,000 vehicles were registered from Imphal East in the Transport Department. Altogether 1, 08, 446 two wheelers were registered from Imphal West while a total of 12, 339 were registered from Imphal East as of August 2012. Another 14, 371 and 1, 801 autorikshaws were registered in the department for the two capital districts respectively. At the same time, 17, 086 and 2, 074 cars were registered from both the districts respectively.
Lack of traffic sense among the people is another factor for making imphal city one of the congested cities. We often see many vehicles both two wheeler and four wheeler parked in front of the shops along the Paona bazar, Thangal bazar, MG avenue road etc. which disturb the passage of other vehicles causing high traffic jam. Parking allotment along these road sides should be cancelled to reduce traffic jam in the city.
