New Year’s eve: A test for traffic police

As if the traffic situation in Bengaluru was not chaotic enough already, a newly opened mall at Byatarayanapura further added to the woes of motorists travelling towards the north of the city, particularly to the Kempegowda International Airport.

The traffic during the recent inauguration of the mall and on Christmas-eve was so bad that the airport authorities had to issue an advisory to travellers to leave their homes well in advance or risk missing flights.

While the shopping mall’s officials said that they had taken steps to handle the festive surge, the frequent occurrence of jams raised questions about the adequacy of those steps in this particular case, as well as over the traffic police’s handling of such situations. In September, for instance, the Outer Ring Road witnessed an unprecedented traffic jam when thousands of vehicles were stranded for several hours.

Then, the huge volume of vehicles was attributed to a rush of people trying to get out of the city for the long weekend. In both cases, however, the traffic police failed to anticipate the coming rush and act in advance. Now, with similar congestion expected during New Year’s eve, the police should ensure that adequate measures are put in place immediately across the city and at all entry and exit points, and not just in the central business district, as is done usually.

The organisers of large-scale events must do their bit by providing buses to the venue from the nearest metro stations and encouraging their patrons to use public transport, as the organisers of the Bengaluru Literary Festival did in early December.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M N Anucheth had a point when he said that malls expecting huge crowds should obtain a no-objection certificate from the police and request advance measures. The Kambala event, which was held over a weekend in November at the Bengaluru Palace Grounds, drew over two lakh people, but there was no traffic snarl as the flow was managed and adequate parking facilities provided. The Byatarayanapura mall had a parking capacity of 3,200 vehicles as against the requirement of 10,000 slots, he pointed out.

Coming from a senior police officer, the charge should be taken seriously. If indeed the mall deviates from the byelaws, steps must be taken to undo the violations and action taken against erring officers. The government should also revisit building byelaws and plug loopholes in them. Approval of the traffic police, along with other compliances, should be made mandatory for grant of approval for all large buildings. While these, along with improving public transport, are measures to be taken with the long-term in view, the traffic police face an immediate challenge on Sunday. It remains to be seen how they will acquit themselves.