The burgeoning traffic in the city has not seen a corresponding increase in personnel to handle it — a fact that handicaps the police. The number of vehicles in Delhi remains much more than other metropolitan cities.
For over 80 lakh registered vehicles in the National Capital and another 15 lakh criss-crossing everyday, there are a meagre 5,985 traffic police personnel. According to traffic police estimates, while the percentage increase in manpower since 1981 is 236.49 till last year, vehicles have undergone an alarming 1,224.06 per cent hike during the same period.
Uncontrolled growth makes it a difficult task to ensure traffic discipline. On an average, just seven traffic policemen are pitted against 10,000 vehicles. When worked out in comparison to road length, each policeman has to supervise an area of 5.5 km. According to last year's figures, the city has road length of 33,198 km. While data shows that Delhi Traffic Police has strength of over 5,000 personnel, the reality is quite different. Official sources said deployed strength on road comes to 3,000 personnel per day.
Additionally, out of 43 traffic circles, only five have switched to the double shift format. The earlier 8 am to 8 pm shift has now changed to a 6.30 am to 1.30 am shift! This even as pressure to avoid fatalities fatigues personnel. In the past two decades, Delhi has witnessed almost four-fold increase in the number of registered vehicles - from 19,23,787 in 1991, Delhi had 74,38,155 registered vehicles till last year.
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Taj Hassan said, "Compared to 1981, the explosion in number of registered vehicles till last year is 1,224.06 per cent, while the personnel strength has undergone a meagre increase of 236.49 per cent. Apart from this, the police have to tackle several other challenges, such as non-revision of penalties for traffic violations since 1988 and blatant disregard of traffic rules." Managing the roads in Delhi is no piece of cake.