Considering bringing back towing on Bengaluru roads, says Karnataka Home minister Parameshwara

The minister launched the ASTraM mobile app, released a coffee table book and threw open the revamped first floor of the Traffic Management Centre on Infantry Road.

Bengaluru: Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara on Wednesday said that his department is considering bringing back towing on some roads in the city to deal with the traffic impediments effectively.

He was speaking after launching the ASTraM mobile app, releasing a coffee table book and throwing open the revamped first floor of the Traffic Management Centre on Infantry Road, which has transformed into a Traffic Museum and an Experience Centre that the public can access between 10 am and 5 pm from Thursday.

The coffee table book has, in a printed format, the history of the traffic police which is traced on the walls of the floor. A team led by the Joint Commissioner M N Anucheth started the endeavour in May 2024.

"The idea was to basically document our history. We did a lot of research going through old gazettes, state archives and the archives of The Printers Mysore Private Limited and The Hindu," said M N Anucheth.

The book and the museum trace traffic duties in Bengaluru from 1908. The first traffic duties that were enforced involved a holding a lantern between sunset and sunrise. "I hope this helps in improving the road safety perspective among people, especially young children. We are trying to make it in line with the teaching of today, which is more touch-feel-see. If children can learn basic things about road safety and respect it, that would be my ultimate goal," he told DH.

The museum showcases vintage traffic equipment, including old uniforms, the first speed-recording doppler radar equipment introduced in 1976, and the first alcometer, historic photographs and documents, and an interactive display which will show how Bengaluru Traffic Police was the first to adopt AI-based signalling and digital enforcement systems.

The experience centre offers a peek into the future, with a state-of-the-art facility showcasing the tech evolution of traffic policing and road safety in the city. This includes driving and road safety simulators, a real-time digital twin of the city's traffic, interactive quizzes and games on road safety, and a Large Language Model robot.

Anucheth, who presented data on the city's current traffic conditions, also said that the police is trying to increase the AI cameras' detection of violations from seven now to 13 this year, and launch a digital twin of the city's traffic by March after incorporating metro and bus data.

Other measures

Home Minister Parameshwara, who spoke at the second editors' meet (focused on urban mobility challenges) after the inauguration of the museum, also assured better traffic management, coordination with civic agencies for road design and maintenance, and more special drives for violations.

"We are far better than other metropolitan cities, definitely better than Ahmedabad, but we want to be the best. We are doing the most with the resources we have... We recruited more staff, depending on the requirement of the traffic department, the government is open to giving them those numbers," he said, responding to some questions.