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This one is for the road ahead

followING RULES
Last Updated 30 July 2014, 16:02 IST

The trainers here don’t practise magic yet the res­ults of their efforts are ma­gical.

 Many a times husbands of homemakers drop them at this obscure park at Roshanara Bagh in the morning and by the time it’s evening, the women are capable enough to drive back their husbands to their home. This is the brilliance of training in driving two-wheelers that is practised at the Traffic Training Park!

A perfect example of public-private partnership today, the park recently celebrated its first anniversary since the responsibility to operate it has been handed over to Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI). Its establishment, however was some 28 years back when the then Lieutenant Governor of the capital, Harkishan Lal Kapoor inaugurated this property set up of Delhi Traffic Police. The aim was to train denizens in driving two-wheelers but the execution of the plan wasn’t successful as the park lay unnoticed for decades.

It is difficult to believe these historical facts because today the place is abuzz with children and young and old females who wish to become independent when it comes to driving a two-wheeler. The park has educated 20,000 Delhiites across different age groups in the span of last one year. More than 1,400 female riders have been trained by the staff, which has been trained at various countries such as Thailand, Japan, Australia and Singapore to name a few.

All it takes is a mail with essential details (at dreamridin­g@ttpdelhi.in) which registers one for the training for free. “There is a three-month waiting for registration at present. All this is through word of mouth only. When a homema­ker learns how to ride a scooty, she goes out and shares her experience with 10 others who then aspire to also learn and become independent,” says Yadvinder S Guleria, vice president, sales and marketing at HMSI.

Once you enter this park, you get an experience of a makeshift road set-up of the city where there are specific time slots for different age groups to learn two-wheeler driving. Starting from childr­en aged five to adults of any age can learn at this park through practical and theory lessons, including an experience on simulators (which provide a feel of driving on the road). “A lot of college-goers from Delhi University’s North Campus come here too,” says Harpreet Singh, department head of sa­fe riding, promotion and training at HMSI who along with his brigade of trainers attends to all with utmost patie­nce. “If we scold any new rider, he or she will become fid­­­­g­­­ety and it will be more diff­icult to teach them the trick to balance and graduate from a cycle to a sco­oty,” adds Singh as one watches female trainers teaching women in sets of four.     There is also a provision to teach children how to ride a bicycle. Anil Shukla, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) says, “As the adage goes, ‘Catch them young’, it is important to teach our children how to follow road rules when they learn cycling rather than giving sermons later when we come across cases of negligence in road safety.” Well said, for it is the need of the hour to not just sit and rue over road accidents but promote road safety by teaching Delhiites how to ride safe!  

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(Published 30 July 2014, 16:02 IST)

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