Traffic Jams Cost Sharjah Students a School Day

Pupils of various schools located in the Sharjah Educational Zone were held up for over two hours in the morning and many frustrated parents, driving their children to schools, returned home without dropping them.

Up to 40 buses of some schools were delayed and they are now contemplating picking up students as early as 5.45am to beat the traffic.

With schools reverting to regular working hours after Ramadan, coping with traffic has been a nightmare, say school principals, adding that the National Paints Roundabout continues to be a major bottleneck.

“I waited in traffic for nearly two hours to drop my children at school, located about 18km from our house. I tried alternative routes but it was impossible to make any headway. Finally, I dropped them back home. At least three other parents I know had to do the same,” said John K., father of a student of Sharjah English School.

David Throp, principal of the school, said the traffic jam was worse due to an accident at the Airport Tunnel in Dubai, which resulted in a tailback on arterial Sharjah roads.

“Road works are going on in several parts of Sharjah. We hope they will be completed soon,” added Throp.

Many students of Delhi Private School (DPS), Sharjah arrived several minutes late for the examinations. The school has now rescheduled the examinations which will commence at 8.20am instead of 8am.

“For the last two days, we have been having a difficult time, especially since small children are forced to travel in school buses for over three hours,” said Sonia Agarwal, a teacher at DPS.

“There is always anxiety whether my child will make it on time for the exams or not. I keep calling and checking if his bus has reached and he hasn’t missed out on crucial time,” said Agarwal, who is also the mother of a student in the same school.

Nearly 40 buses of Our Own English High School, Sharjah, Boys Branch, were held up for over an hour. The school now plans to pick up children as early as 5.45am so that they reach the school on time.

Similarly, students of Sharjah British School are coming to the school as early as 6am these days since parents do not want them to get stuck in traffic jams. “Children are coming in very early and we can’t leave them early. So we are forced to put teachers on duty to take care of them,” said Mrs Raffat, assistant principal.

Colonel Mohammed Al Mazloum, Director of the operations room at Sharjah Traffic Police, said since the first day of the reopening of schools after Eid, policemen have been deployed prone to traffic snarls. The cops give priority to school buses and let them pass.

Separate lanes have also been designated for school buses. Despite all these measures, some school buses were delayed on Monday, Colonel Al Mazloum said.

The police are making all efforts to ease traffic flow in view of the road constructions and closures, he said. The police were also regularly meeting with departments concerned to discuss the construction being carried out on main roads of Sharjah and its effects on traffic, which has worsened with the reopening of schools.

Colonel Al Mazloum said police cannot be deployed near each and every school as there are 180 schools in the emirate. However, he said, the police are always available to help the schools facing problems. He urged the school managements to call the police any time a traffic or other issue comes up.

Officials of the Public Works Department said they have converted many roundabouts into signal intersections and are assessing their impact on traffic. The traffic problems will be solved completely once the ongoing road projects are completed by 2010, they said.

preeti@khaleejtimes.com& afkar@khaleejtimes.com

Readers' Comments

I stay in Sharjah - Taawun area and work in Jebel Ali. Eventhough my office timings are at 9.00 am, I leave my house at 6.00 am mainly due to traffic problems in Taawun area. Also since my wife works at Bur Dubai I have to drop her also. Even at 6.00 am traffic is congested in Taawun mall roundabout. Police come to control the traffic at around 6.30 am by blocking one side of the roundabout. By the time police comes there is already lot of congestion. On sundays especially It takes me sometimes around 1 hour to cross the roundabout. My only question to Police is why can't they come at 6.00 am itself and block one side of the roundabout so traffic keeps on flowing from one side without any congestion. - Sunil Venkateswaran, Sharjah – Taawun

They should do something serious about the traffic in Sharjah , they should also think about the traffic chaos between Sharjah and Dubai , they have to make some alternative routes from Sharjah to Dubai , so the people can reach office and home at time , we are spending nearly 2 - 2 hours from Sharjah to Dubai and Dubai to Sharjah , if this goes on one day people will leave this country because of traffic. – Hemanto, Sharjah

There should be one grand connecting road from Tawwun mall straight to Dubai Mamzar in Dubai. Much traffic woes would end. Something planned today if it finishes by 2010, then by 2010 the challenges would grow to be solved by 2012. Approx a million hours per day of traffic congested people's most productive-able hours are spent on roads. This is very big loss to economy. – Tariq, Sharjah

Traffic problem is making lives miserable for people residing in Sharjah. My son studies in Dubai Scholars and we live in Sharjah. I have tried sending him to school by bus but it takes almost two hours to reach school. In period of one month, my four year old son has developed severe travel sickness and now he is no more ready to move out of the house even for fun sake. Development and progress is not helping the residence as their lives are becoming more complicated with increased problems and frustrations. Why can’t timings of offices and schools of different areas be changed to solve the traffic problem? Why can’t school and office timings be changed so that school traffic is separated from office traffic? Are these not the clear cut solutions for the betterment of all? Why are we deprived of peaceful family life when we are progressing at a very fast pace? I wish some miracle happens and we find smooth traffic from tomorrow itself on the roads of Sharjah and Dubai. - Lubna Khan, Sharjah