Effective steps taken to reduce halt time at Lakhanpur on JK-Punjab border: Officials

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday said various measures have been taken to reduce the waiting time of passengers at Lakhanpur - the gateway to the Union Territory bordering Punjab.

“With improvement in situation at Lakhanpur, the authorities have managed to reduce the halt timing of the commuters to 10-15 minutes. As a result, almost 2,500 Light Motor Vehicles (LMV) and 2,800 trucks passed through the inter-UT/State border in last 24 hours,” an official spokesman said.

He said the process of entry and exit of passengers has been improved by augmenting COVID-19 testing facility and additional requirement of counters have resulted in reducing the halting time of passengers to a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes.

“The Heavy Motor Vehicles (HMV) and LMV counters have also been increased by opening more counters to avoid heavy rush and sampling points (counters) have also been increased from six to 12 which has increased efficiency and reduced time to handle the commuters at the entry point,” the spokesman said.

He said the easing out procedure has increased the incoming and outgoing people as a result of which 6,000 to 7,000 passengers daily enter into J&K or go out of the UT through Lakhanpur.

Meanwhile, the separate green counters have been set-up for HMV-LMV Kathua based passengers to cater to daily travelling.

Support staff from the Higher Education Department has been deployed at all the newly established counters to augment arrangements of the already existing manpower, the spokesman said.

The government had recently appointed Commissioner Secretary of Higher Education Department Talat Parvez as the overall in-charge at Lakhanpur to oversee movement of passengers.

With his appointment, the spokesman said the management arrangements saw a change in delivery system and public service has also been improved in the shortest time period.

In this arrangement, the inter-state buses drop their passengers and labourers at Lakhanpur and then they board SRTC buses after being tested for COVID-19 using Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) kits.

The virus-negative passengers, including labourers and commuters, are allowed to proceed towards their destinations and the people including drivers, if detected positive, are being shifted to COVID-19 care centres established in Kathua district, the spokesman said.

Besides, he said commuters travelling in their own vehicles have to make self-declaration at Lakhanpur and this has also helped the management to reduce halt timing.

The spokesman said ailing people and ambulances are being helped at Lakhanpur to proceed towards their destinations without difficulties amid observance of all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) described under COVID-19 measures.