City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar on Wednesday launched three mobile applications developed by the traffic police which would not only ensure safe journey but also involve road users in better traffic management.
Home Minister K.J. George, who was scheduled to launch the apps, cancelled his participation at the last moment owing to election code of conduct coming into force.
In his place, Mr Auradkar launched the apps — Traffic info App, Public Eye App and the car pooling app called Let’s Drive Along.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B. Dayanand said through this applications the road users and motorists could not only become responsible, but also help the city police to manage the traffic better.
Explaining about the application, Mr. Dayanand said that the BTP Traffic Info App was developed to integrate with the existing BTP infrastructure and did not need any internal access.
It is a free app which can be downloaded from Google playstore. The entire app is designed in such way that the user has to type in as little as possible. Most of the information needed is automatically calculated. Based on the user feedback, the app will be updated to fix any problems and make it more user-friendly, he said.
Proposal to enhance traffic fineThe traffic department is contemplating to propose to the Union government to enhance the fine amount, Mr. Dayanand said.
According to him, the existing fine amount prescribed under Central Motor Vehicles Act, was minimal and not deterrent to the violators. “We have devised several methods like sending the violators to court to pay the fine and compounding the violations and recommending cancelleation of license, but this is not sufficient”, he said .
Due to the minimal fine amount, traffic violations continue unabated.
