Speed checks, lane driving to be imposed by Bidhannagar Police in Salt Lake

The increasing number of road accidents in Bidhannagar has made the city police come up with a comprehensive plan of action. The recent high-level meeting of the senior officers in Bidhannagar Commissionerate

came up with the idea to restrict the errant movement of the vehicular traffic by implementing strong rules like heavy penalty for the violation of such norms.

The plan of action will include surveillance cameras on the road, installing 'radar speed gun' to check speed of the vehicle passing by the road, lane driving, automatic traffic signals, SOS system in traffic poles, special night patrolling vans for catching errant drivers and bikers, different speed limits for different vehicles.

Salt Lake, the prime part of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, was largely free of traffic signals for years. Traffic signals at frequent points were introduced between the period of 2005-2010. Traffic poles were installed on major roads but the signals were defunct most of the time.

The roads in Salt Lake at night were worse for walking by a few years ago. The cars, without abiding by the signals, often mowed down people on the road after dark. Many such incidents were reported at the crack of dawn while unidentified vehicles hit elderly morning walkers on the roads.

Over time, things in Salt Lake have witnessed changes. The traffic policemen look more vigilant on the road along with civic police volunteers to control the vehicular traffic. The higher officials of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, though, came to a conclusion that a comprehensive plan of action would really be needed to reduce the number of accidents in the city.

Although some residents of the posh city expressed their reluctance over installing frequent traffic signals, but the city police believed that it was really needed for Salt Lake roads.

Officers of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said, there were CCTV cameras at several places in Sector V to supplement electronic surveillance in every office building. The policemen are examining footages of several such cameras from time to time. Sector V is

the IT hub of Bengal and is home to about 1000 large and small companies.

It may be mentioned, in New Town, the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) authorities planned to install smart poles.

Apart from LED lights, the poles would also hold CCTV cameras, traffic sensors, distress buttons and air-pollution monitoring gadgets.

Police decided to install 'radar speed gun' on different roads of the city to measure the speed of the running vehicles. Following the increasing incidents of road accidents at Salt Lake, the police have already install traffic signals on most of the roads.

It was decided to fix speed limits for various vehicle. Trucks will be limited to 30 km per hour, the bus and auto rickshaw will be limited to 35 km per hour and private cars will be limited to 40 km per hour. Signages were put up on the road dividers mentioning the speed limits for

all types of vehicles. The policemen were seen operating the radar speed guns to take down measurement.

Lane driving would be introducing first time in Bidhannagar Commissionerate for controlling traffic.

"The intention of introducing lane norms is to curb rash driving and overtaking in this locality," said Sudhakar, DC (Headquarters) Bidhannagar City Police.

The traffic police department decided to demarcate three lanes in the roads. Broadways of the city, Chingrighata to Biswa Bangla Sarani and VIP Road have already been demarcated in lanes. The vehicles which would violate the lane norms would face penalty.