New OPD block of IGMC- Could become a potential traffic bottleneck

Only if something is not preemptively planned the opening of new OPD block state hospital (IGMC) would introduce a new traffic bottleneck for the city. Shimla which is already suffering plight of its narrow roads would have another challenge to accomplish, if something is not planned beforehand. The new OPD block of the hospital is about to be inaugurated in a few months. The new block shall have one inlet and another outlet road near the RKMV tunnel. The inlet gate for the block shall submerge with the intersection point of already existing local bus stand, taxi stand and parking (Towards the tunnel side). The outlet would merge across the bridge on the circular road towards the medical college.

One of the reasons for constructing this new OPD block was the massive traffic jams on the IGMC gates all day around due to lesser road width. An IGMC OPD in peak hours (Morning) attracts traffic volumes of more than 700-1000 auto units. The RKMV tunnel point currently also witnesses huge inflow/outflow of traffic, with jams as a common phenomenon here. Though in out points are separate for the new block viz a viz upper IGMC gates, yet the entire traffic has to go in/come out on the circular road, which has lesser width in that area. Infact some few points of the road here were widened, but they got turned into unauthorized parking. So evident fact now that the road here cannot be widened. Even if it can be no such plans have been announced by the local authorities yet. Another challenge is that with shifting of the OPD block, parking of vehicles would also shift. Earlier they used to drop patient at upper gate and park on the Government College – Sanjauli road (Whether legally or illegally). But now naturally the phenomenon would shift, as people would prefer parking near the in out gate, than drive the vehicles somewhere else to park. It would not take long after opening of the new block that this part of circular road would also start choking unless something is planned fast.