School traffic creates chaos in Muscat

Muscat: The traffic congestion on the way to two major Indian schools in the Darseit suburb of Muscat has become a huge problem for the authorities who are trying to alleviate the hardship faced by residents during morning school hours.

The problem nearly erupted in a confrontation last Friday when a carnival hosted by the Indian School Darseit (ISD) created total chaos in the area. Some residents locked the gates of the school from outside refusing to let visitors get in or out of the carnival grounds. The dispute was resolved late at night and school authorities had to call off the second day of the carnival.

That incident and a call to find a solution from local residents prompted the Royal Oman Police (ROP), and head of the local area to meet the school authorities to work out a solution. They spent two days discussing the problem.

“The ROP has already issued a circular notifying changes in a new route for traffic in Darseit during school hours,” Tonny Alexander, the Indian School Board Chairman, told Gulf News.

“We have sent the map of the new route to all the parents and the transport operators,” he added.

The concerned parties, he added, also agreed to change school timings for the ISD as the problem was more intense on the road leading to ISD and onwards to Darseit old area near the coast.

“From next week the senior school students at the ISD will start at 6:30am instead of 7am and junior students will start at 8.30am instead of 8am,” he said. He pointed out that there was no change in timings for the Indian School Muscat (ISM).

The ROP have announced that from Wednesday (today) entry towards ISM is closed at the wadi entrance near the Noor Mosque. Anyone heading towards ISM should go via the Muscat Municipality Building entrance near Qahwa Roundabout on the road leading from Darseit traffic junction to Ruwi Roundabout.

According to the 2010 Population Census, 102,637 expatriates and 47,487 Omanis inhabit Muttrah area of Muscat in which the Darseit suburb falls.

About 8,900 students study at the ISM and over 3,000 at the ISD. Over five to six thousand cars commute through Darseit area in the morning school hours, according to an estimate provided by an ROP official.

The demands for seats in Indian schools keeps increasing each year and the Board chairman estimates that the Indian community needs more schools to cope with the increase in demand. “A new Indian school in Ansab suburb, with the capacity to accommodate over 3,000 students, will be ready before the next academic year,” he revealed.

Currently over 38,000 students study at 19 Indian schools across Oman.

“Indian schools and private schools need to be assessed on whether they follow civil defence safety guidelines,” said Tawfeeq Al Lawati, a member of the elected Shura Council from Muttrah area.

“The main Indian school has 9000 students. Is it safe to have this number of students plus faculty?” he asked.

He raised a question on the evacuation plans in case of fire. “Does the school have adequate parking space to accommodate staff cars and school buses?” he asked.

In his opinion the best solution would be to move the main Indian school out of Darseit to the Amarat suburb.

“How was the Carnival approved at the current location with 100,000 visitors without proper parking space?”.

He felt that the school authorities (ISD) had sent the wrong message to the local community by causing a major disturbance to them.