In a bid to augment the safety and accident-prevention measures on highways falling under the purview of the Tirupati Urban Police, the traffic department officials, with the financial assistance of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), will be setting up nearly 100 cautionary road signs on the 40-km stretch from Kukkaladoddi to Nellaballi area.
According to a recent survey undertaken by the police department, traffic officials have identified as many as 54 black spots/accident prone zones and commenced work to establish stoppers, road signs, caution boards and other preventive measures on the stretch. Speaking to The Hindu , Traffic DSP II V. Ramana Kumar explained the steps envisaged by Tirupati Urban SP R. Jayalakshmi to make the roads in the temple city safe for the locals as well as devotees coming from other places.
“Our main focus was to reduce the number of accidents on highways. In this regard, the Traffic Department has been conducting regular drives to keep a tab on drunken driving, overspeeding (with the help of Interceptor) etc. However, we wanted the highways to be safe, resulting in the current initiative,” he remarked. The drives, termed as sub divisional enforcement programme, bring together traffic officials and others from Renigunta, Chandragiri, M.R. Palle and Tiruchanur police stations.
Accident-prone areas
With some major areas still bearing the tag of ‘accident-prone regions’, the officials are also teaming up with the engineers from Transstroy India Limited to rectify the issues. Areas such as Mungilipattu, Chandragiri Road, Ramanujapalli Circle, Tanapalli Cross are currently under focus.
“We have also spoken to the school managements near highways and will be setting up stoppers from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Besides this, the number of deaths due to accidents has come down in the past couple of years,” maintained Mr. Kumar.
Technological advantage
The Tirupati Urban Police, who have already earned the distinction of being ‘tech-savvy’ for their connect with the citizens, have also initiated an auto-digitalisation programme which enables passengers engaging the services of an autorickshaw or taxi, to know the details of the driver by scanning a QR Code (via smartphones) embedded on the owner identification cards.
It also displays details of the Traffic Department officials for further reference. Till date, 450 taxis and 1,500 autorickshaws installed the facility. The traffic officials have also been tracking violations through Command and Control Centre with regular issuance of e-challans and posting such violations on the Facebook page of the Tirupati Urban Police for spreading awareness on traffic rules.
