After ‘Bus Day’ and ‘Open Street’ initiatives to promote use of public transport in the city, the state Transport department on Sunday launched ‘Less Traffic Day.’ Transport Minister H.M. Revanna flagged off a cycle jatha to mark the event at Vidhana Soudha. The day will be observed on second Sunday of every month.
The vehicle population in the city has touched 72 lakh and to avert Delhi-like situation, we need to promote Less Traffic Day, he said. “The aim is to promote public transport in the city. The State government is also promoting electric vehicles to augment the problem.” Owners of electric cars and taxi aggregator having a fleet of electric vehicles also participated in the event.
Organisers come in cars
While the event was organised to promote use of public transport, some of the organisers, including officials, failed to follow what they were preaching. Many of them chose to come to in their official vehicles to the venue, Vidhana Soudha, which is easily accessible by metro and bus.
Questioned about this, Mr. Revanna said: “While taking any initiative there will be some loopholes and we are ready to fix them. In coming days the government will instruct all officials of transport department, BMTC and others to use public transport while observing Less Traffic Day.”
Interestingly, the minister had earlier claimed that ‘Less Traffic Day’ will be supported by bigwigs of Kannada film industry, but none of them turned up for the event.
200 electric bikes
Speaking on the association, Mayor Sampath Raj said that to promote use of electric vehicle, the BBMP had decided to provide 200 electric bikes as last mile connectivity from the Metro stations in the city. “As pilot project, we are going to provide the service free of cost, after which a nominal fee would be charged.”
The Mayor said that BBMP is also taking up measures to install censors to monitor pollution level in various roads in the city. “We will also come up with a command room to monitor pollution on major roads. It will also be linked with disaster management team. The authorities concerned will keep a vigil on pollution levels.”
