After tasting success in enforcing the ban on the use of tinted glasses in four-wheelers and stepping up vigilance against drunken driving, the city police have sought media’s cooperation in implementing the helmet rule and compulsory fastening of seat belts.
C. V. Anand, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, said the campaign against tinted glasses and drunken driving became a success with media playing a positive role in creating public awareness.
With 1.4 lakh people succumbing to road accidents in a year in the country, it was nothing but road terrorism, he said at a media workshop on road safety.
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“While there is a lot to be improved in traffic infrastructure, better enforcement and compliance of traffic rules alone will improve safety on the roads and bring down accidents. One may escape many times by violating traffic rules, safety precautions, but there comes a time when the lapse turns fatal,” he said.
Identifying several challenges pertaining to traffic management system and bringing down accidents, he said the city police launched the ‘RS 10 Project’ identifying challenges and steps to tackle them.
One of them is Hyderabad Traffic Integrated Management system to be implemented at a cost of Rs. 66 crore for improving traffic infrastructure including signalling system.
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Metro cities like Mumbai and Bangalore had implemented it at a cost of Rs.70 crore and Rs.100 crore respectively.
Mr. Anand said with Hyderabad having only 9 per cent of total area compared to metro cities norm of 18 to 20 per cent, they were taking measures to remove encroachments, widening of road space and provision of footpaths for pedestrians.
But bottlenecks emerge in the form of religious structures in the middle of roads, electric poles, transformers obstructing traffic movement, lack of parking lots.