District Police Chief (Thiruvananthapuram City) P. Prakash has said that the possibility of facilitating carpooling options in a major way is being actively pursued to bring down traffic congestion in the city.
Addressing the representatives of various residents’ associations here on Saturday as part of the Maithri Suraksha community policing programme, Mr. Prakash said that discussions would soon be initiated with the officials of Technopark to take forward the proposal. He pointed out that ride-sharing initiatives, particularly those intended for the employees of Technopark and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), could considerably bring down traffic volume in heavily-congested areas, including Sreekaryam and Kazhakuttam.
The officer elaborated on the proposal after a Technopark employee, who attended the meeting, called for efforts to emulate the initiative of the Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of IT companies in the State, which recently launched a digital platform to facilitate carpooling. The participant claimed that the endeavour had brought down traffic volume towards Technopark by roughly 20%.
The Maithri meeting, the first one to be called after Mr. Prakash assumed charge, took up several issues ranging from traffic management, unauthorised parking, drug trade, and burglary to various civic issues, including littering and inadequate streetlights.
Lane discipline
Responding to a demand, Mr. Prakash said that the City police would soon commence efforts to enforce lane traffic rules. According to him, ensuring lane discipline would require constant sensitisation prior to its enforcement. He proposed implementing such steps initially along a stretch each under the north and south traffic police limits.
Rajan, a representative of a residents’ association at Nandavanam, called for constituting volunteer committees in all police station limits in the city to ensure regular contact with senior citizens.
Susheela Devi, an office-bearer of the Federation of Residents’ Association Thiruvananthapuram (FRAT), expressed concern over the recent spate of chain-snatching cases, which have endangered the safety of women and children. There were also calls to rein in the growing menace of drug trade that targeted youngsters in various places, including Poonthura.
Conspicuous absence
While officials of various departments attended the meeting, those of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation were conspicuous by their absence.
Notably, several issues which depended upon the active participation of the local body came up for discussion.