In a bid to augment the road traffic management of the town, the police here are taking initiatives including installing automatic signals at prominent squares, CCTV and positioning adequate manpower. These are done in a public private partnership mode.
On Wednesday, ground breaking ceremony of an integrated traffic tower was held at the station square.
The tower is being built with the financial assistance of the Rotary Club , Baleswar with a budget of about Rs 10 lakh.
The tower, in a pattern of Watch tower ( Ghanta Ghar), besides having traffic post, also will have automatic signaling system and clocks in four directions. Apart from this the arts and crafts of the district would find a place in the tower.
It may be noted although the Baleswar city had automatic traffic signaling systems in the major intersections including at FM Golai, Station square and Police line square with the financial support of the industrial houses in 2009, yet by a year or two, all of them turned defunct. Those couldn’t be made serviceable due to paucity of funds in the department when the industrial houses didn’t wish to spend further towards the repair or replacement of the gadgets.
Over last 10 years the traffic posts at major squares and circles have been manned manually by the police although in some major points the department installed CCTVs
“The traffic lights couldn’t be repaired or replaced due to financial bottlenecks . But CCTvs have been installed in 18 places in and around the city and about 12 others are in pipelines . These Cameras are not only helping in traffic management but also in the monitoring the movements of criminals and crime control,” said Traffic police station OIC Prasant Ransing.
The traffic control could be more effectively carried out once the encroachments are cleared and people become self conscious, he added.
“The administration, in some places ,is failing to evict the encroachments as the encroachers are influential people. Many a time, after eviction again the encroachments are put up in the same place by the same individuals or groups. More so , people lack parking senses which make difficult for providing a hassle-free traffic,” said another police official.