MATHUR, J. - (1.) A man is known by the Company, he keeps and a City is known by Environment and Road System it keeps, Jodhpur heritage has some of the medieval flavour and ambience dotted places havelis, temples and houses washed in pale blue. The City and its people live in warfare gaze of imposing Mehrangarh Fort. The City continues to be thriving centre for handicrafts, sandstones, Steel re-rolling and other miscellaneous industries. It is the judicial capital of the State of Rajasthan. The environmental problems are gaining significance because of the rapid population growth, the aggressive speed of urbanization, lack of infrastructure and to add this, illegal concrete jungle coming up across the City unabated. A public spirited and vigilant citizen of this City viz; Shri Mahendra Lodha by way of instant petition, has voiced grievance that the City is facing environmental problem because of lack lustre attitude of the Government, ineffective local bodies i. e. Municipal Corporation and the U. I. T. and lack of belongingness of some of the selfish attitude people.
(2.) IT is averred that the extra ordinary increase in the number of vehicles, smoke, vapour, spark, ashes, grit & oil emissions have totally polluted the environment of City of Jodhpur. IT is also averred that the greatest villains of peace are tempos and trucks, as they emit smoke, vapour, ash in disregard to the statutory provisions. IT is emphasized that the things have reached to the stage where one is almost inhaling poison on all the busy roads of Jodhpur City. Thus, the instant petition essentially pertains to the environment and the traffic management in the City of Jodhpur. The problem is not that simple, as it has many facets. The mere widening of roads or providing new roads do not solve the problem connected with the traffic of a city or town. The traffic management includes regulations for traffic control and guiding measures of traffic flow or traffic congestion, parking areas, roads system affecting traffic operations, engineering elements of road system, the conditions of automobiles, encroachments on roads, buildings abating the roads, cleanness and sanitation of roads and so on. The heavy rush of vehicles and pedestrians during peak hours of the day, results into overcrowding of road. Such condition is referred-to as traffic congestion and it develops due to various factors including faulty intersections, narrowness of roads, steep curves, haphazard parking of vehicles, physical encroachment on roads, absence of civic sense and lack of strict enforcement of traffic rules. The traffic congestion makes the surrounding area polluted with undesirables gases, vapour and odour increasing the chance of accidents. Driving through the traffic congested area becomes more tedious and it adversely affects on health of drivers of the vehicles and others. The people are to waste lot of time during traffic jams. It also causes more wear & tear of the vehicle. There is national wastage of petrol and gasoline used for running automobiles because they do not attain the optimum speed for which they are designed. Thus, taking all this into account, this Court by order dated 26th July, 2000 directed the Collector and District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and the R. T. O. , Jodhpur to frame an appropriate scheme after taking into confidence the transport Operators, Lorry owners, various owners of the three wheelers' Association, Transport Association etc. The District Administration after having interactions with different organizations by way of workshops and meetings in smaller groups and after due deliberations submitted the scheme for proper traffic management in the City of Jodhpur. One and all present in the Court expressed that the things have gone out of control and it has not been possible for the authorities to control the situation without the judicial intervention. Inspite of the fact that petition is pending since 1993 and the menace instead of being controlled, continued to grow in perpetuation of this hazard to public safety, it was felt that it has become necessary for this Court to issue certain directions which were required to be promptly implemented to achieve the required results. Thus, this Court by a detailed order dated 21. 11. 2000 reported in 2001 (1) RLW (Raj) 463 (Mahendra Lodha vs. State of Rajasthan) , issued wide ranging directions and since then, continuously monitoring the compliance of the orders of this Court. During the long period of six years, number of compliance reports have been submitted by the different departments. There have been pleasant and unpleasant occasions; pleasant in the sense that this Court appreciated the effective steps taken by different authorities and unpleasant because on various occasions, the authorities were pulled up inasmuch as on certain occasions, contempt proceedings were also initiated. There have been occasions of resistance of the orders of this Court. Thus, we proceed to take stock of the work undertaken during the period of six years as follows: MOVEMENT OF HEAVY TRAFFIC WITHIN THE CITY AREA: It was realized that on account of location of large number of transport Companies inside the City i. e. Jalori Gate, Old Stadium Maidan, near Olympic Cinema, Station Road and Paota `b' Road, there has been movement of heavy vehicles throughout the City causing traffic congestion and mismanagement. It was also brought to our notice that a decision was taken more than 20 years back for shifting of all the transport Companies outside the City in Transport Nagar established at Basni. Almost all the transport Companies were allotted commercial plots at concessional rates at the Truck Terminus, Basni. The plots were allotted at concessional rates on the condition that they will shift to the newly allotted place of business within a period of one year. However, because of the political or money clout, they managed to continue to run their business from the locations inside the City. Thus, considering the gravity of the problem and defiance attitude of the transport Companies, strict directions were given for shifting all the transport Companies outside the city within a period of one week and in the event of furnishing an undertaking, within a period of three weeks. A complete ban was imposed on entry of heavy vehicles inside the City with effect from 8. 12. 2000. It was further directed that the violation of directions will lead to cancellation of the licenses of the trucks under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act and seizure of the same. The vehicles were not allowed to be released by any authority except with the permission of this Court. The order was subsequently modified only to the extent that heavy vehicles will be permitted in the City only for the limited purpose for loading and unloading of goods during night hours i. e. 10 P. M. to 7 A. M. However, they were not permitted to park inside the City, even during the night time. For essential services during the day time, trucks were permitted for a specified period and that too, on permission being granted by the District Magistrate. At the initial stage, the transport Companies showed their attitude of defiance and applications were also filed by the transport Companies for recalling the order. The order was challenged before the Apex Court by way of filing the Special Leave Petition, which came to be rejected by order dated 9/4/2001. The order of the Apex Court is extracted as follows: " We are happy to note that atleast one High Court is taking trouble of cleaning up the area of its City in which it is situated. Following the orders of this Court in M. C. Mehta's case, we see no reason to interfere with the directions, so issued. The Special Leave Petitions are dismissed. " The Court also ensured that the facilities are given to the transport Companies in the Transport Nagar. The compliance report was filed stating that all the transport Companies have shifted to the Transport Nagar and that the U. I. T. has provided necessary facilities to the transport Companies. The U. I. T. also indicated its intention to establish two more Transport and Automobile Nagars. In the final compliance report, it is stated that the Basni Truck Terminus has been fully developed. There exist no transport Company inside the City. The Transport and Automobile Nagar has been established in village Aangana and the other Transport Nagar is proposed in village Vivek Vihar Yojna. On account of complete ban of entry of heavy vehicles inside the City, the police established five Check Posts on all Entry points of the City and diverted the movement of heavy vehicles through alternate routes. The trucks coming from Bikaner-Nagaur side were directed to pass through Mandore Chungi Naka meeting at Jaipur-Jodhpur Road. The vehicles from Delhi - Jaipur side were diverted to move towards Barmer- Jaisalmer and use another route through Dangiawas. The District Magistrate, Jodhpur by order dated 29. 11. 2000 specified the route of the vehicles coming from Bikaner, Jaisalmer and vice versa. DEFENCE VEHICLES:
(3.) DIRECTIONS were also given with respect to check of heavy vehicles belonging to different services i. e. Army and Air Force. As per the directions given, a meeting was convened in the office of the Divisional Commissioner along with the officials of the Army and Air Force. It is reported that the meeting was fruitful and it was agreed that heavy vehicles of the Defence Service shall follow the traffic rules punctually, they will not enter in the busy area of the City and park at the places determined for them. The resultant effect of the orders is that now, Jodhpur is one City in which almost no heavy vehicles are seen moving, except few vehicles permitted by the District Magistrate for essential services. BYEPASS: On account of complete prohibition of heavy vehicles in the city, it has become necessary to ensure that the existing alternate routes are made roadworthy and further Byepass is provided. At the initial stage, the repairing work was undertaken to provide the alternate routes. The State Government was directed to prepare a plan to provide the byepass. It was brought to our notice that there existed a plan for providing a byepass for different routes but the same was not given priority by the Director General of Roads, Ministry of Surface Transport, New Delhi. Even the letter of the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Rajasthan at the relevant time to the Hon'ble Minister of Surface Transport did not yield result. Thus, a direction was given to the Ministry of Surface Transport, Government of India, to take a project on top priority. The Chief Engineer and the Ministry of Surface Transport, Government of India was asked to visit the City of Jodhpur alongwith other senior officers of the State Government. The meeting was convened at Jodhpur on 15th January, 2001. Accordingly, the project was given priority at the State level as well as the Central level. The job was entrusted to Border Road Organization. The byepass was to be completed by March, 2005. The job was not completed during the scheduled time, for which, the Border Road Organization pointed out certain difficulties. At the first instance, they wanted some time for construction of bridge on Jojari river. Another was construction of flyover on the design being given by the Railway Administration. This Court gave a deadline to make the road functional atleast by providing a temporary causeway on the Jojari river and a temporary Railway Crossing near village Sangaria. We are happy to note that the road has been made functional. A prayer has been made by the Railway Administration to give some more time for construction of flyover. A similar prayer has been made by the Border Road Organization for construction of bridge on the Jojari river. The resultant position is that out of total length of the byepass i. e. 48. 6 kms. , the construction has been made to the extent of 39 kms. On construction of bridge on Jojari river, flyover as indicated above and completion of left out road of 9 km, entire traffic of all the routes presently passing through the City, will be diverted through said byepass. This will not only make the City free from traffic congestion but will also change the complexion of the City in big way. We hope and trust that the Bypass shall be made operational in full swing latest by September, 2007. FLYOVERS: ;