Traffic is usually a nightmare

Traffic is usually a nightmare

Raghava M.

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

JAMMED JUNCTION: A file picture of a traffic jam at the Silk Board Junction after heavy rain in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: Ask the police about monsoon preparedness and the usual answer is a groan and a list of ordeals they face in regulating traffic on the many flooded roads of the city. Pushing stuck vehicles, removing uprooted trees and branches and diverting traffic from flooded areas are all in a rainy day’s work for them.

“This has become our routine during monsoon,” says a senior police officer, who was himself involved in clearing a tree branch that had fallen on the Palace Road during Saturday’s rains.

“We are the first persons to reach the spot. If there is delay by the civic agencies in attending to the problems, we take measures to remove the road blocks,” he said.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood said the traffic police have little pre-emptive role to play in during monsoon apart from manning the traffic movement. He said the absence of slopes, clogging of drains and incomplete road projects have led to water logging. “We are helpless about water logging … it’s beyond our control but we are the first to face the brunt,” he said.

Mr. Sood said the police had given to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike a book containing the list of traffic junctions and roads that were prone to water logging.

The list includes Siddalingaiah Circle, parts of Ambedkar Veedhi, Seshadri Road and Double Road, and near Lalbagh West Gate. “The ongoing road projects in areas such as Victoria Layout Road have been added to the list. You find a cesspool of slush here,” he said.

Mr. Sood said several meetings had been held with BBMP officials about the measures necessary to clear the water logging, which slows down the flow of traffic.