Traffic headquarters to be set up in every district

Kolkata: The Bengal government has decided to set up traffic headquarters in each district across the state in order to curb road accidents and maintain smooth traffic management.

Approximately a week ago the cabinet had cleared a proposal of 2,577 new posts under state police in traffic section for 23 districts.

The proposal, which has already been given a green signal by the cabinet, is waiting for the final order. Under the project, 2,577 new posts have been created.

At present the traffic department in district functions under the Superintendent of Police (SP). But the department is not properly equipped with a headquarter and a dedicated Traffic Control Room (TCR).

After the commencement of the project, 18 new TCRs and 15 new district traffic headquarters will be set up.

Also, multiple senior police officials of the Additional Superintendent of Police (Addl SP) and Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy SP) will be in charge of the traffic departments in the districts.

According to sources, it has been observed that after the commencement of Safe Drive Save Life (SDSL) campaign which is the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the number of fatal and non-fatal road accidents have already climbed down over the past few years.

Though the number of accidents has gone down, the proposal was given as no dedicated traffic headquarters and control rooms are there in any of the districts apart from the police commissionerates.

Additional Director General (ADG), Traffic and Road Safety of the state police, Vivek Sahay said: "Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is putting in all efforts to bring down the number of road accidents. She had started the SDSL campaign which is a success. As a part of that, for the first time in Bengal dedicated traffic wings will be set up in the districts."

Though traffic guards are present in all the districts, however, they are not equipped with adequate manpower or proper infrastructure. Under this project, the existing traffic guards will be reorganised and manpower will be increased. Moreover, 27 new traffic guards will be set up.

Sources informed that under this project 17 new highway traffic guards will be set up for traffic management at the highways in the state. At present, there are no designated traffic guards for highways.

Each of the highway traffic-guard will be specially equipped with advanced traffic management instruments and would be headed by an inspector ranked police official.