Ludhiana: When the city’s population struggles to overcome growing traffic and the lack of space that is right for parking in the middle of construction and repair of work, the lack of coordination between the various departments seems to be the cause of worries.
Speaking with Toi, Commissioner with Police (Traffic) Deepak Pareak talked about these problems and shared his views on projects related to future traffic in the city, which can help provide assistance that is needed to the population.
Why is the Ludhiana Traffic Police Unable to Handle Traffic Congestion because of Haphazard and Parking Projects? Ideally when a project starts, the department is concerned – whether it is a city corporation or the National Highway Authority of India – must keep the traffic police in the loop so that the proper reduction plan can be made and people also get a parking lot.
But that doesn’t happen at the time.
The police government was not involved when the work at Ferozepur Road Flyover, Flyover Jalan Pakhowal and even a smart road project from Sat Paul Mittal Road (known as Malhar Road) began.
As a result, people witness congestion and traffic chaos in this area.
Because there is no previous planning to ensure a smooth flow of traffic, what we can do now is to exert the traffic police there to manage the situation.
Everything will be better if the department concerned has taken the police administration in the loop before starting the project.
Jalan Ludhiana is considered the most deadly in Punjab.
How do you plan to check the accident? Dark spots, where most fatal accidents have occurred, have been checked and a report has been sent to the department concerned.
However, I know the work of improving these spots has not yet begun.
The problem is that the police department can only request NHAI, Corporation Municipal or PWD to improve spots, but we do not have funds to resolve something at our level.
Lately, we have made the NHAI project director visit Ludhiana.
We bring it to various points and certain changes suggested such as making several underpasses and changes at the entry point and exit, etc.
In addition, the presentation at 10 points has been sent to the MC to facilitate traffic chaos.
Now, the authorities concerned must work on these suggestions.
Traffic police ensure commuter safety through the Challan drive.
We have started this drive against vehicles that have increased the height or vehicle length illegally, or involved in excess loads and using high beam lights.
So far, we have published more than 550 Challans to drive high driving and more than 400 vehicles that are too large and overloaded this month.
New projects that emerge in Ludhiana City projects such as controlling excessive speed, body cameras for traffic police and payments in places of challans are in the pipe.
Trials for body camera projects, where traffic police will bring a body camera at checkpost, it has been done at Bharat Nagar Chowk and Fountain Chowk and currently we analyze it for better quality videos, storage capacity, etc.
The next two months, we will launch the project.
Also, city police have replicated the Lucknow-Agra Expressway project to check excessive speeds in Ludhiana.
In addition, to curb and loot cases on national highways, we have asked NHAI to provide our portal cabin on the service path isolated to ensure the presence of the police.
How do you ensure a two-way response system between traffic and residents? The response is already there when the traffic police are active on the official Facebook page, the Twitter handle and Instagram account.
People share images and videos on various problems and violations, and actions are also taken on their complaints.