A delegation of Vidarbha Taxpayers Association (VTA) led by its president Shrawankumar Malu met Sarang Awad, IPS – DCP Traffic, Nagpur City on various issues related to traffic, held discussion and also submitted a memorandum.
Shrawankumar Malu, president VTA submitted DCP Traffic to accept our sincere gratitude for turning off a few traffic signals during peak sun-hours, as it helps more, else commuters break signals to avoid sun heat. He also highlighted that use of cranes and passengers’ e-rickshaws for transporting of material is rampant, which slows the smooth traffic and also increases possibility of accidents. Mostly on old Bhandara Road, use of cranes to transport huge wooden logs during peak hours is a common site. Even the speed of such vehicles is so slow that it literally brings traffic to a halt till they are travelling on the road.
Tejinder Singh Renu, secretary VTA said, nowadays issuing challan on traffic violation is quite frequent and this is appreciable for transparency as well as for accountability; with such steps we believe gradually road users will improve riding/driving skills and shall also follow law religiously. However, we need to acknowledge and understand that the very purpose of the maximum speed-limit was introduced to avoid accidents during rush hours. Nevertheless, nowadays we have seen challans coming online for speed limits during peak day-time when even the traffic on the road is scanty. So issuing challan for over-speeding on vacant roads becomes irrelevant. Majority of City roads have maximum speed-limit of 35 km/hr, on a vacant road this speed becomes impossible to maintain, the traffic behinds keeps honking when he observes that the vehicle ahead of him is driving slow even when the road ahead is available freely. Therefore, such speeding challans should be issued for rash drivers and not just for slightly over speeding on vacant roads, Rs. 2000 becomes extremely painful without a genuine fault.
VTA also requested DCT Traffic about the continued traffic jam issue opposite DRM Office on JaiStambh Square, where many times auto-rickshaws are parked in two lanes, and fruit vendors in huge numbers creating bottlenecks throughout the day. Likewise two wheelers and autos illegally cross plastic dividers installed on Ram Jhula various times in a day and with no action or prevention in place; such activities are rising day by day. Now even the cars and jeeps are seen blocking traffic and taking illegal u-turn just to avoid a slightly longer u-turn available. Traffic Police should ask MahaMetro to install concrete dividers for longer lengths and also deploy cops at peak hours to book such violating commuters by taking pictures of their vehicles under relevant sections.
Sarang Awad – DCP Traffic accepted that these issues are in his knowledge too. He assured that speed limit radar vehicles will mostly target the highways and rash drivers will be booked through CCTV footage covering almost the entire city. He also assured that cops will be deployed at Ram Jhula ends to monitor safe flow of traffic.
Also present in the VTA delegation were Hemant Trivedi – vice president, Joint Secretaries Amarjeet Singh Chawla and Rajesh Kanungo.