Kerala - Kochi   

Police can make minor changes: Collector

– Photo: Vipinchandran

Bovine block: All efforts by the police to ease traffic congestion fail in situation like this in Kochi.

KOCHI: The police can enforce minor changes for regulating traffic to ease traffic congestion in the city whereas major changes require concurrence of the Road Transport Authority (RTA), Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, who is also the chairman of the RTA, has said.

Decisions like restricting U-turns along MG Road, whether to open up the road leading to Pallimukku for two-way traffic are operational decisions which the traffic police can take, Mr. Hanish said.

However, fundamental changes like modifying the pattern of one-way traffic and demarcating parking and no-parking zones have to come before the RTA, he said.

He made it clear that the proposal for banning the entry of four-wheelers without at least four occupants and two-wheelers without pillion rider into the city cannot be enforced. “It involves the fundamental right of the citizen to travel,” he said.

The motorists too do not seem to have taken lightly the prospects of such a restriction.

“I will be the first person to approach the court if any such ban is implemented in the name of traffic reforms as it is a direct violation of my right,” Santhosh, who runs a business in the city, said.

He said that the authorities would have to consider alternative ways like flyovers top solve traffic congestion.

While Traffic Police in the city are relying on figures to support recent steps taken to streamline traffic, not all those who use the road seem to be happy about it.

The police say that there has been a dip of 24 per cent in accidents and that of 71 per cent in fatalities on the stretch between Pallimukku and Madhava Pharmacy since six median breaks were closed during last four months.

But this has led to protests from autorickshaw drivers. Trade union leaders are complaining that police officials are not taking them into confidence while bringing in new traffic reforms.

“Many of the traffic diversions are made in an unscientific manner. Since short-cuts that these drivers take during traffic blocks as well as u-turns in the arterial roads are closed arbitrarily by the police, autorickshaw drivers find it hard to operate,” said P.A. Jirar, area secretary, Autorickshaw Thozhilali Union (TUCI).

Autorickshaw operators held a protest march to the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police,Traffic (West), last week. However, the police are going ahead with the decision to close down the median breaks. “Recommendations would be given to authorities concerned to permanently close these breaks in the median,” said Manoj Abraham, Police Commissioner.

Another reform that the police are about to bring in is restricting the entry of vehicles into the city to ease traffic snarls.

“This is basically a Western concept; levying a toll for vehicles entering central city areas. Since we cannot enforce this without legal backing, we are suggesting this as an alternative,” said Mr. Abraham.

Unlike developed metro cities, the public transport system in the city is not efficient enough to cater to the commuters who have been asked to leave their personal vehicles behind.

The police are also going strongly against drunk driving. Initially, the police went about booking passengers in vehicles driven by drunk drivers for abetment. But now, they have softened up.

“We are booking only passengers who are also found drunk,” said K.B. Venugopal, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic (West).

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