Bengaluru: Home Minister Dr G Parameshwar has said there was no remedy to Bengaluru’s traffic woes unless its infrastructure is improved. While replying to a question by Ms Jayamala Ramachandra (Cong) in the Legislative Council on Thursday, he said every day as many as 1,250 two-wheelers and 428 four-wheelers were being registered in the city and hitting the roads.
The existing infrastructure was not in a position to take load of the vehicular population despite widening of roads and constructing of several flyovers, overpasses and underpasses across the city.
In 2003, Bengaluru City had around 19 lakhs vehicles and now it had crossed 66 lakhs. Bengaluru had been one of the fastest growing cities in the world and it had won the tag of 'dynamic' city. Traffic management had become a biggest challenge for the police department.
At present, the city traffic was managed by just 3,400 personnel and facing a shortage of 1,300 personnel. The newly-trained police personnel would be deployed across the city within a month.
As for enforcement, Dr Parameshwar said 91 lakh traffic related offences had been booked in 2016-17 and collected a fine amount of Rs 61 crore. Though, it was not the job of traffic cops to collect fine for traffic offences, it was being collected to inculcate discipline among drivers. Those indulging drag races and wheelies were being booked and legal action is being taken against them. Entry of goods truck had been restricted from 11 am to 4 pm to avoid traffic chaos within the city.
A hi-tech Traffic Management Centre had been established to oversee traffic at 167 important junctions across the city, where high definition cameras had been installed to capture the registration board and the face of any motorist who jumps traffic signal.
Besides, traffic surveillance and enforcement cameras were in place at several places for better traffic management. As many as 5 lakh people would travel in Namma Metro trains thanks to proposed completion of Phase-1 next month and an estimated 50 lakh citizens were likely to travel after the completion of Phase-2.
Alternative roads were being readied to help people reaching the Kempegowda International Airport in Devanahalli. He said instruction had been given to all senior traffic police officers, including the DCPs, to be present on road during peak hours.
