More vehicles bring more woes to City

More vehicles bring more woes to City


Rakshita Adyanthaya | ENS
First Published : 01 Nov 2008 08:12:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 01 Nov 2008 12:39:42 PM IST

BANGALORE: More vehicles on city roads means more mishaps. But, the high rate of accidents isn’t deterring Bangaloreans from buying more vehicles,” say senior RTO officers.

In August 2008, there were 75 lakh registered vehicles on the streets of Bangalore. The same was 69 lakh in 2007, 62 lakh in 2006 and 54 lakh in 2005. Apart from these, there are the floating vehicles - those coming from other places.

Around 8,426 accidents accounting for 1000 deaths and 6,589 injured, occurred in Bangalore last year alone.

The number of vehicles damaged was 2,157.

Road-users blame traffic authorities for poor traffic management and the officials blame the attitude of the roadusers.

However, the city traffic police have promised better times in the coming years with the introduction of BTRAC with latest technology.

Presently, a number of traffic signals have come up in the city and interceptors have been introduced on the Devanahalli International Airport Road to control the number of road accidents.

Software engineer Ramesh Krishnan says: “Each day there are new rules, no entry boards and traffic signals introduced.

And the next day you find traffic police stopping you for breaking that rule.” Despite the signage on the streets, road-users remain ignorant, complains a traffic official. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood said: “No infrastructure can bring about any change unless there is a change in the attitude of road-users. About 70 per cent of those who suffer because of road accidents are pedestrians, for no fault of theirs.” During rain, it’s as if the entire city is choked due to water-logging and traffic congestion.

Ongoing works related to road widening, flyovers and metro rail only compound the problem. But Sood promises that Bangalore will see an end to traffic woes.

“The traffic problems will continue for at least two more years. In the coming days, more roads in the city will be blocked for metro work. But, it will benefit Bangaloreans in the long run and the number of road mishaps will come down.”