Police-civic coordination must improve city transport

Traffic management and road engineering should be part of town planning to make urban governance effective, but have been ignored, which has hindered implementation of many schemes, former Director General and Inspector General of Police Ajai Kumar Singh said on Friday.

Releasing senior IPS officer M A Saleem’s book ‘Traffic Management in Metropolitan Cities’, Singh said the government should set up a high-level coordination committee comprising heads of civic bodies and planning and enforcement authorities of all the departments to prepare a detailed plan for the future of Bengaluru’s transport.

“Plans have to be formulated by taking everyone along, so that members of the public develop a road sense. Traffic police at the ground level, from constables to inspectors, will have in-depth knowledge of issues in a particular area. Their expertise should be utilised while making plans,” said Singh, who handled the city’s traffic for seven years as deputy commissioner of police and joint commissioner of police.

Saleem, now posted as Additional Director General of Police (Administration), recalled the days when the traffic scenario in Bengaluru started changing following the IT boom, from implementing one-way directions on the Raj Bhavan to the days when no plans seemed sufficient due to the rising number of vehicles.

“Bengaluru sees an average of 1.65 crore trips every day. The share of public transport is limited to 45%. Urgent measures are needed to increase this number to 82%. In the meantime, a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) should be set up to coordinate both short-term and long-term measures for the future transport needs of the city.”