BENGALURU: Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday said that in order to tackle traffic congestion in the city, families need to reduce the number of vehicles they own.
He was speaking at the culmination of the 26th National Road Safety Week programmes in the city. “There are 54 lakh vehicles, while the city’s population is around 1 crore. This is a very high ratio, and many households have multiple cars and two-wheelers. This is not required. If people reduce the number of vehicles they own, congestion can be reduced to a large extent,” he said.
Despite the rise in the number of vehicles, accidents have been reduced due to “effective policing”, Reddy added. He said the North-East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) received three awards from the Union government last December.
He said the High Court has directed authorities to develop footpaths in the city and the Transport Department is working towards this. An estimated
52 lakh people use BMTC services every day and good footpaths are essential, he noted.
Personnel Honoured
Many traffic personnel were felicitated on the occasion. Among them were inspectors Mohammed (Electronics City station), Ravi (Kumaraswamy Layout), Shivashankar (Malleswaram), L V Tejaswi (Whitefield) and Niranjan (Kamakshipalya). Inspector Niranjan was awarded for teaching traffic rules and guidelines to around 40,000 students.
Students from various city schools too were awarded for participating in competitions organised by BMTC and the traffic police. Reddy said that from next year, like traffic personnel, BMTC staff too should be recognised for their efforts.
Transport Commissioner Ramegowda, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B Dayananand and actor Harshika Poonacha were among those present.