Despite an advisory issued by the district road safety committee asking schools to actively promote car-pooling among students and parents to tackle traffic congestion around campuses, no private school in Chandigarh has submitted any compliance report so far.
Event Context
Traffic congestion around schools remains a concern
The committee has been advocating measures such as staggered timings, traffic management plans and alternative transport options to reduce congestion around educational institutions.
On car pooling, the committee had said that fewer vehicles around schools would improve student safety, reduce traffic congestion, ensure lower fuel consumption and emissions, and provide an economical commuting option for parents.
Schools call for coordinated effort
Reema Dewan, principal, Delhi Public School, Sector 40, said the school has been actively encouraging parents to adopt car-pooling and has created a structured system to facilitate the arrangement. “More than 300 cars are now part of the car-pooling initiative, with students travelling together in significant numbers. This has helped reduce traffic congestion outside the school and made traffic management much easier,” she said. She added that around 10% of parents are still hesitant to opt for car-pooling, but the school is gradually working towards increasing participation through awareness and sensitisation.
How a policy would help
Team Analysis
The push for car-pooling had come amid repeated observations by the road safety committee regarding traffic snarls outside schools during peak hours. The committee had also flagged the lack of dedicated drop-off and pick-up zones, congestion outside school gates, vehicles stopping on carriageways besides unsafe road crossings by students due to overcrowding.
The problem is not limited to one sector or one school. Sectors 26, 32, 35, 36 and 40 in Chandigarh have seen repeated complaints of gridlock outside large private schools, while similar bottlenecks play out across Mohali and Panchkula every morning and afternoon.
Match Outlook
Atul Khanna, principal of Strawberry Fields High School, said car-pooling would be a welcome initiative if implemented in a comprehensive manner, but it would require collective participation and coordination among all stakeholders. “It will be a great idea if implemented in totality, but someone has to take the initiative. Sector 26 is a hub of educational institutions, and all schools in the area need to come together and adopt such measures collectively,” he said. He added that a coordinated approach among institutions would be more effective in reducing congestion and improving traffic management around the school zone.
Road safety experts said Chandigarh needs a dedicated policy to ensure car-pooling becomes a safe and regulated practice rather than an informal arrangement. A notified policy could define whether schools can facilitate parent-based car-pooling networks, verification requirements for drivers and vehicles, insurance and liability provisions and safety norms for children travelling through vehicles.
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According to the advisory, schools were required to map students residing in similar neighbourhoods, facilitate the formation of car-pooling groups, and sensitise parents through circulars and parent-teacher meetings. Institutions were also asked to submit an action-taken report to the committee.
Officials, however, confirmed that no major private school has reported implementation of the advisory so far.
Reason: The city lacks a formal car-pooling policy. Unlike school buses and authorised school vans, which operate under prescribed safety norms, private car-pooling arrangements between parents currently do not have a defined regulatory framework, such as driver verification, vehicle fitness, insurance responsibility or liability. A senior official explained that schools are hesitant to formally facilitate car-pooling unless there is clarity on whether they would be held responsible for any untoward incident. “Schools can encourage parents to adopt shared transport, but there needs to be a clear policy defining the role of institutions. Without a framework, responsibility in case of an accident remains ambiguous,” the official said.
