B-TRAC 2010, the government’s pet project designed to ease  the City’s traffic bottlenecks, has found a critic in the Autorickshaw Drivers Union.
The CITU-affiliated union has raised concern over what it called an extremely expensive project that cannot address the City’s traffic-related issues effectively.
The Rs 350-crore project, to be implemented by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited, is on course and the Traffic Police has been releasing its key features in phases, including the recent distribution of Blackberry mobile devices to traffic inspectors. BTRAC-2010 is a five-year programme, for which the government has allocated Rs 44 crore in the 2006-07 budget. Of the allocated fund, Rs 35 crore has been released.
“The programme is a huge waste of money. The government should initiate programmes to widen and better the City’s roads,” Rudramurthy, vice president, ARDU, said, contending that innovations including dedicated auto lanes had backfired because the measures did not address basic issues.
According to sources, Rs 1.95 crore has been released for the supply, installation and maintenance of the traffic enforcement system and Rs 1.94 crore for upgrading and maintenance of existing signals, while  supply and installation of new roadside traffic signs is planned at Rs 42.5 lakh. Rs 1.35 crore has been allocated for the traffic surveillance and monitoring system, while the variable message sign system has been earmarked Rs 11 crore.
The programme was devised after studies pointed out that the average journey speeds during peak hours, on some of the roads were less than 10 kmph. The Traffic Police claimed that B-TRAC 2010 could reduce traffic congestion by 30 per cent in the City centre and also reduce pollution and accident rates.