f all goes well, you will have a smooth ride across the city soon. The City police have come out with a comprehensive report on optimising traffic. The report has been compiled over two months based on the inputs and inferences from traffic policemen on the ground.
A copy of the report, prepared by Deputy Commissioner (Law and Order) K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin, has been submitted to State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar. Discussions have also been held with the District Collector and senior police officials.
The implementation of the report, which calls for several changes on many fronts, requires close coordination between different departments.
Action plan
Mr. Gurudin said the District Traffic Advisory Committee and the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation had also been roped in and an action plan would be chalked out soon.
Mr. Gurudin said the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) had been requested to conduct localised studies, primarily on a few traffic islands, such as the one at Chakka, which had been impeding smooth traffic.
One major point in the report is that the road capacity of the city has crossed the saturation level and cannot accommodate the increasing number of vehicles.
“The road design and structure too do not comply with the standards/norms, due to various reasons,” the report says.
Several junctions and intersections with inadequate link roads and faulty signal system add to the chaos.
The report has elaborated on encroachments by street vendors, signboards, banners, hoarding, arches and outlets which are choking the city roads.
Most importantly, the report underlines the fact that the city lacks sufficient parking places. “Almost all vehicles are parked on the road,” it says.
Another interesting observation is that on a daily basis, there are five to six processions, marches and dharnas in the city, with some organisations making it “a fashion to block the road for attracting maximum attention.”
