Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Bhopal traffic police have come up with an innovative idea to ensure smooth traffic management across the city and uproot inconvenient situations such as traffic gridlocks and bumper-to-bumper crawls. Senior officials of the Bhopal traffic police told Free Press that drones shall soon be deployed across the city, to keep tab on places where traffic gridlocks and congestion have become a routine. After taking stock of all such areas, traffic police personnel shall be deployed in large numbers over there to lessen the situation and facilitate the convenience of two-wheeler, as well as four-wheeler commuters.
When asked about the number of drones to be incorporated for the objective, officials said that a total of five drones will be brought into effect within two weeks. They further added that as the initiative is at its initial phase, just five drones are being brought in currently, after which the number shall be increased as per requirements.
Delving deeper into the reason behind launching drones for traffic vigilance in the city, Free Press learnt that sundry areas of the city often reels under traffic snarls and gridlocks, among which, the most common ones are Kolar Road, where the six-lane road construction is underway. Apart from Kolar, MP Nagar has also emerged as the centre-point of traffic jams, where immense inconvenience is being caused to both two-wheeler and four-wheeler commuters owing to the ongoing metro project.
Sources at Bhopal traffic police office said that once smooth traffic management is ensured with the help of drones, those persons who are found to be flouting traffic norms by not wearing helmet/seatbelt and violating other such rules shall also be subject to penalisation. The sources, however, remarked that the principal objective, as of now, behind bringing in drones, is to ensure smooth traffic management.
‘One-way route offenders to be penalised’
Deputy commissioner of police (DC traffic), Padm Vilochan Shukla said that his primary objective is to crack down on a majority of people not adhering to one-way route norms. He said that drones for smooth traffic management will arrive in the city within two weeks and owing to less traffic police personnel in the city, a Yatayaat Shiksha cell will be constituted too, under which volunteers will accompany traffic cops during peak hours.
