Traffic police Rajeev Ranjan Singh in an interview with The Pioneer reveals how the traffic police have been able to ease out the ever jammed traffic — though partially — of Ranchi. He also explained why and how traffic problems have become a “social problem” which should be tackled with integrated efforts of several department and common people.
Traffic problems seem to have eased much. How did it happenIJ
We diverted the buses from Kantatoli bus stand to Khelgaon. Khadgarha bus stand is also made one way. These buses used to chock the traffic during peek hours in evening. Bus stand at Ratu Road has been shifted to ITI bus stand. Besides these buses, traffic snarls were also caused by more than 500 oil tankers plying on the city roads. There are around 20-22 petrol filling centers in Ranchi. How come there were around 500 oil takers for 20-22 petrol pumpsIJ We talked to Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum. After much deliberation we agreed that the oil tankers meant for other districts will not use city roads rather they will go through ring road. Now 20-22 oil tankers ply on city roads that too not during the pick traffic hours which is in evening 5-8 pm and afternoon 1-3pm. Besides we made roads in upper bazaar area one way.
Which are the roads to be made one-way in near futureIJ
We are conducting survey in Kotwali Road, JJ Road, Rangrej Gali Road and Bakari Bazaar Path. Survey will tell us the resources required in making the roads one way. These four roads will be made one-way within a week or two.
Why we use plastic delineators despite knowing that these will be crushed by anybody.
I don’t know exactly what stops the district administration and Road Construction Department to replace delineators with permanent dividers. I have personally written the DC, to the road construction department and to other concerned offices. They have agreed with me in-principle but nothing is seen on roads. It is not costly also. While the cost of instilling a delineator comes around Rs. 1,000 (which means you have to spend nearly a crore in installing delineators in the city) whereas the entire cost of replacing thousands of these delineators will come just around 4-5 lakhs.
Ranchi city offers very few parking slots for vehicles and this is intrinsic to the way Ranchi has evolved – in an unplanned manner.
Yes there is dearth of parking place in city. But this can be managed by people’s cooperation. Recently we have identified parking slots at several places. People should park their vehicles there and go for shopping. They have to make the habit of walking few meters also. Smaller vehicles should be parked within the limits of white demarcation lines on roads.
What were the positives of recently concluded Traffic Awareness week and gandhigiris of policeIJ
Not much. People are caught violating traffic rules with no less frequency. Awareness and cooperation is still missing.
How then the traffic problems could be tackledIJ
Problems of traffic have become a social problem now. Society creates (it) and suffers. How many of people visit police station every dayIJ Not many. But everyone has to come on to roads and face traffic every day. Traffic jams reduce efficiency of people. Police alone cannot improve it. Other departments like RMC and road construction need to cooperate.
What kind of cooperationIJ
We can only enforce the rules with the help of the infrastructures these agencies offer. Why does RMC not take permission of traffic police before passing maps for hotels, apartments and other corporate buildingsIJ They come up without sufficient parking arrangements. Who will address thisIJ Why does RMC not take permission from us before passing the maps for these buildings as Municipalities in other Indian cities are doingIJ
Please elaborate the kind of help you need in terms of infrastructure from RCD and RMCIJ
Make lanes and white patches in Main Road for rickshaw. Write in lanes, “exclusively for rickshaw and thelawalas”. Make lanes in other roads also. Ensure that at every roundabout left lane is demarcated with permanent dividers and left free. Make sure buses stop only at identified bus stops. Don’t make them rickshaw stopping arbitrarily. You might incur some loss for some days. But then people will learn to walk few meters to catch the buses at designated stops. These are not impossible. RMC and RCD can do it. We should not forget Ranchi is capital city now.