To deal with the ever-increasing traffic chaos which turns an anathema for the people of Dehradun and other big cities of the State like Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital, State Police Department is all set to set up a separate traffic headquarters.
It is learnt that a proposal has been sent to the State Government seeking its approval for the required manpower and funds needed for infrastructure-building.
Additional Director General of Police (Administration) and State Police spokesperson Ram Singh Meena said on Monday that they [the department] were seriously considering a proposal to establish a traffic headquarters to ease the traffic woes the commuters face almost on daily basis on the city roads.
“A police officer on the rank of DIG will be appointed as the director of the traffic headquarters. State police have sent a proposal of creating of 362 posts for the purpose. They would include 182 posts for City Patrol Unit personnel while the rest would be traffic constables, Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors, Circle Officers and an Additional SP to the State administration,” he added.
Observers while welcoming the new decision, say things on the roads have become a nightmare for the commuters, and the new separate traffic headquarters might ease out the problem a bit. “The sooner the State Government acts on the proposal the better. Those driving through the market areas remain stuck in traffic jams. Encroachers and vendors are compounding things further. Things seem almost incorrigible with the district police throwing up their hands in despair,” said an observer.
Another said the new set-up should deal strictly with the protestors hitting the roads, causing in huge traffic logjam. “Things turn horrible when the Assembly is in session. Those manning traffic cite manpower and infrastructure crunch to cover their failure to rise to the occasion. We hope that the ordeal of the commuters who face daily would diminish once the separate headquarters would start functioning,” he said.
The police officers sound hopeful that the State Government would clear decks for it to come up. “Those to be deputed at it would have their focus trained only on easing out things on the roads. Besides, they must be mandated to evict the encroachers and vendors, eating parts of the roads.
They should be tech savvy too. They should earmark right parking places while they must deal stringently with the menace of unauthorised parking. Fund crunch should not be allowed to come in the way of infrastructure building. Most importantly, efficiency among the personnel should be enhanced adequately as this is what is lacking,” said a senior police officer posted in the police headquarters.
Another police officer said the traffic headquarters to be set up must function in perfect sync with other departments like transport and road aside from the civic body to bring about the desired change.
Ramesh Bisht, a Dehradun-based private school teacher, said the works which need immediate attention included drawing zebra crossings, repairing signals, removing encroachment and providing proper parking areas. “We hope that the differences would be visible on the roads once the separate traffic headquarters would come up here,” he added.