29 lakh vehicles, only 1800 traffic cops

29 lakh vehicles, only 1800 traffic cops
Friday June 22 2007 08:38 IST

BANGALORE: With the drastic increase in vehicular population and the shortage of staff, the traffic police are finding it difficult to manage city traffic.

The total number of traffic police in the city is 1,800, which is far below the number required to manage the traffic with nearly 30 lakh vehicles.

The mismatch between the number of vehicles and traffic cops has made their job very difficult, said a traffic constable. ‘‘It is very difficult to manage traffic at busy junctions during peak hours,’’ he said.

There are 165 traffic signals which are manned by traffic police that leaves 250 signals unmanned.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M N Reddi said they were recruiting additional 922 traffic constables soon. ‘‘We need atleast 1000 more people to manage the traffic.’’

Narrow and congested roads in the city makes the traffic cops’ job even more difficult. Many roads are constructed few decades back and unable to cope with the increasing vehicle population.

The Bangalore City Corporation has identified 90 main roads for widening. When contacted Home Minister M P Prakash admitted that there was a severe shortage of police personnel in the entire state.

This year government has recruited around 4,000 police personnel across the state, he added.

Depending on the requirement, they will be deployed to different wings, like traffic, law and order and other sections, he added.