City police to revamp traffic management system in capital

Thiruvananthapuram: The city police are planning to revamp the functioning of traffic personnel on field in a bid to improve the efficiency of road traffic management.
City police commissioner M R Ajithkumar has mooted a plan to increase the number of traffic sectors under the city traffic division, which would in turn result in an increase in the number officers on roads regulating the traffic.
Commissioner Ajithkumar has already convened a meeting with the two assistant commissioners of city traffic in this regard and directed them to submit a detailed project report (DPR).
The city traffic division has two sub-divisions – North and South – both functioning out of the office at Pattom. Each sub-division is headed by an assistant commissioner each and assisted by a circle inspector. North sub-division is divided into six sectors that are spread across the area of nine local police stations. Each sector is headed by a sub-inspector or a grade sub-inspector. Similarly, the south sub-division is divided into five sectors that are spread over 11 local police stations.
“There is a total of 11 traffic sectors in the city and what we have in mind is raising the number of these sectors aimed at a total revamp of the way traffic is regulated here,” the commissioner said. As it requires additional men, the police are looking at ways to mobilize the man power needed from existing force.
“The proposed plan includes not just increasing the number of traffic sectors but revamping the way the traffic personnel worked too,” Ajithkumar said.
At present, the traffic officers patrol their sectors in a linear fashion, ie, they cover a straight stretch of road. Henceforth they would have to patrol in a circular fashion, covering an entire area rather than a straight stretch of road, which would require them to go to less patrolled spots too. Shrinking the size of existing sectors and dividing the work among more officers would help improve the efficiency of the patrolling, the commissioner said.
“The number of traffic constables we have on roads is around 260. The figure was same back in the year 2005. Then, the city police authorities had filed a report stating that this strength was abysmally low considering the volume of the traffic here. But, nothing could be done to increase the strength till now,” the commissioner said.
He added that decisions on resource mobilization would be taken after examining the project reports submitted by the two assistant commissioners.
“We hope to introduce the new system within two weeks,” he said.
Last year, the city police had thought about trifurcating the city traffic division, which would also have resulted in more traffic sectors in the city. But, that proposal did not materialize for various reasons.