Traffic wardens are expected to work along with traffic policemen for fixed hours and in specific locations .
In Kalyaninagar, the work being done on the roads has been creating traffic snarls for a while and now traffic wardens have been deployed on streets to improve the situation in the evenings during hush hour. These wardens have, however, been hired by the residents of the area.
“We recently tied up with a company as a part of a CSR initiative so that traffic wardens can man the roads and we are cooperating with the traffic police as well. However, we feel that there should be more constables in the area to apprehend those flouting rules,“ said a spokesperson for the Kalyaninagar Residents’ Association.
The Yerawada Traffic Division officials admitted that they were understaffed and are encouraging traffic wardens, “I do not have enough constables and I often have to go out and manage traffic myself. We are encouraging the citizens of Vimannagar to bring in traffic wardens and we will cooperate. We also have a traffic plan for the area, which will be implemented soon,“ said Bajirao Muley , the inspector of the division.
Traffic in Kalyaninagar and ViC mannagar areas that are vital arteries to the airport, and also to areas like Vishrantwadi and Khadki, have seen an exponential rise over in vehicular congestion in the past few years. Most roads are not wide enough to handle such traffic, particularly large vehicles like oil tan kers, water tankers and large buses.
Residents complained that the lack of appropriate policing and traffic signals had only made the problem worse.Gross violations of traffic rules by motorists and far too few cops to apprehend them have not helped the situation either.
A lot of the important intersections in the Vimannagar area, such as the Symbiosis and Dorabjee’s intersections, on the Airport Road sometimes have no traffic constables at all, when the situation gets very critical bys tanders have to help out as traffic volunteers. A set of traffic lights were installed at the Datta Mandir intersection in January but they have not been made operational due to a disagreement between other authorities and the police. Police claimed that the area’s streets were “absolutely not compatible“ to traffic lights.
The situation is no much better in Kalyaninagar. Traffic signals are there at the Adlabs intersection but the other intersections, including the Ramwadi subway , are devoid of any traffic lights.
Instances of motorists driving through the unidirectional subway in the wrong direction is also rampant. But most of them go unpunished, claimed residents.
“We have made repeated requests to the local traffic division, and the reply we usually receive is that they are understaffed so we are arranging for traffic wardens in the area.This seems to be the only solution because it will ensure at least some order is restored on the streets,“ said Anita Hanumante of the Vimannagar Residents’ Association.
Source : TOI
