In the national Capital, which has more vehicles than the combined number in the other three metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, only 4,500 personnel are manning the city traffic. What is more alarming, the presence of Traffic Police is zero on the roads during the night hours - 12.30 am to 5 am - and the traffic safety is left to the local police in the form of pickets and night patrolling units on some of the stretches. The Delhi Traffic Police attribute this grim scenario to its inadequate manpower.
According to Traffic Police officials, nearly 40 per cent of city’s fatal accidents take place during night hours when heavy transport vehicles take over the arterial roads and highways. As Traffic Police also go off the roads during these hours, the drivers tend to become more rash and negligent and thus causing fatalities.
A senior Traffic Police official said that accident rates double in the late hours - between 9 pm and midnight as compared to rest part of the day. However, to curb the menace, the Delhi Traffic Police had last year increased its presence at night by two-and-a-half hours. Now, the traffic police go off roads completely at 12.30 am while the duty hours of traffic cops ended at 10 pm under the previous arrangement. Thus the non-policing hours - the time when presence of traffic police is nil on roads - were also reduced from nine hours to six-and-a-half hours. Officials said nearly 1,000 personnel are on duty from 8 pm till 12.30 am.