PATNA: Not only commuters, but even the high court judges also feel that road traffic in the state capital is in a mess.“Traffic is unimaginable (here) … feel lucky if you come out (of traffic jam) in half an hour,” observed Chief Justice (CJ) Amreshwar Pratap Sahi of the Patna high court while hearing a PIL against encroachments on roadsides, footpaths and under flyovers in the city.Central government’s additional solicitor general SD Sanjay, who is amicus curiae in the case, submitted that hundreds of fruit vendors have encroached upon the place meant for vehicle parking under the flyover connecting R-Block to Chiraiyatand bridge. “The situation has become worse and one can’t even walk through the road, leave alone driving a car or two-wheller,” he submitted before the division bench of CJ and Justice Anjana Mishra.It was then that the CJ made the oral observation that traffic in the state capital is unimaginable and one has to be lucky enough to come out of it in a few minutes. The CJ also observed that removing encroachments is the duty of state government.The PIL filed by Ravindra Kumar Karn has also urged the court to order the authorities concerned to complete the flyover construction at R-Block.This is not for the first time that the Patna high court has made a verbal observation on issues related to common people in the state capital. Earlier, the then CJ Rajendra Menon, while hearing a PIL on noise pollution, had shared his personal experience that how his staff called up Dial-100 of Patna police to complain about a loudspeaker blaring at a nearby hotel late in the night but no one in the control room picked up the call despite several attempts. His remarks had left senior police officers red-faced following which several technical faults were detected in the functioning of Dial-100.

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