Bidhannagar cops launch ITMS system

Kolkata: Bidhannagar Police have introduced the Integrated Traffic Management and Surveillance (ITMS) System on Monday with an aim to ensure smooth movement of traffic using modern and updated technologies.

Debashis Sen, Additional Chief Secretary of the state Information Technology Department and HIDCO Chairman, Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Additional Chief Secretary of the state Transport department, Surajit Kar Purakayastha, Director General of Police, Vivek Sahay, ADG (Traffic) and Gyanwant Singh, Commissioner of Bidhannagar Commissionerate were present in the programme held at Nazrul Tirtha on Monday morning.

With the completely computerised traffic management system in place, Bidhannagar Police can easily further bring down the cases of traffic norms violations. It will also help in reducing the number of accidents as most areas will be under direct surveillance of the new computerised traffic control room of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate.

Total 86 areas have been brought under directed surveillance and additional CCTVs have been installed at all the locations.

With concerned police officers constantly monitoring the roads using the ITMS system on the LED screens installed in the traffic control room, they can take necessary steps in an immediate basis as and when they find that a situation may lead to traffic congestion in an area.

The ITMS system will also ensure fall in number of road accidents. It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had launched the state-wide "Safe Drive, Save Life" campaign to check road accidents as Bengal was one of the 13 states where maximum number of accidents took place in the country.

Appreciating the move of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, Bandyopadhyay, said: "Besides Kolkata, now such systems are also coming up in other urban areas. Gradually, people in the entire state will get benefitted through such technology."

He maintained that the state government has taken a series of measures to reduce the number of road accidents. Around 20 percent road accidents have gone down in the first six months of 2017 compared to that of the corresponding period of 2016, he said.

It may be mentioned that the state Transport department has also increased its budget to assist different agencies including the police in taking up projects to bring down the number of road accidents. In 2015-16, the state Transport department had given Rs five crore and Rs nine crore to the Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police respectively for the same. However, in 2016-17, the allocation was increased to Rs 8.5 crore and Rs 24 crore for the Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police respectively. In the current fiscal, the Transport department's expense for this purpose would go up to Rs 60 crore.

Meanwhile, CDs of videos prepared by film maker

Shiboprasad Mukherjee to create awareness on road safety were released on Monday.