Mysore Police Commissioner M.A. Saleem said here on Monday that an increase in the number of vehicles and a lack of parking slots had turned out to be major challenges in regulating traffic in Mysore. The number of vehicles in the city has crossed five lakh.
He was inaugurating a one-day workshop on urban transport, organised by the State Institute for Urban Development (SIUD) at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) here.
The workshop assumes significance in the wake of challenges posed by the increasing vehicular traffic and public transport system, a press release from SIUD said here. The objectives of the workshop are to work out the strategies and action plan to meet the challenges of traffic and transportation, particularly public transport.
The answer to the lack of parking space is the creation of either multilevel parking or the regulation of parking via collection of parking fees on the roads, or a combination of both, Mr. Saleem noted. To reduce the volume of traffic, the city needs efficient public transport that is convenient and affordable.
Mr. Saleem said that while a metro system “was ruled out” for Mysore, dedicated bus lanes within the existing road network were required. The public should also follow traffic rules and disciplines. Merely collecting fines would not help.
The objectives of the workshop were presented by N. Narayana Sastry, consultant, SIUD, ATI Mysore.
Presiding over the workshop, P. Sivasali, former director of SIUD, highlighted some of the problems of Mysore vis-à-vis importance of the workshop. Geetha, Deputy Director of Town Planning, said the outcome of the workshop would help work out policies for tier-II cities with Mysore as a focus.
In the absence of a metro for Mysore, there is a need to plan dedicated bus lanes within the existing road network, Mr. Saleem said. Traffic discipline by the public would go long way in reducing accidents.
Several organisations, including the Mysore City Municipal Corporation, KSRTC, Regional Transport, MUDA, Institution of Engineers, Mysore Traffic Police and Mysore Grahakara Parishat participated; students of the Mysore School of Design were also present.
