With traffic blocks becoming more intense in the city owing to the construction work of the Kochi Metro at various places, it has been decided that a total of 200 ‘extra’ traffic wardens will be deployed at the metro sites in two weeks’ time. Officials said that they had recently received the sanction from Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) in this regard.
According to traffic police officials, the wardens, who were selected by three private companies, will be given special training on signals and traffic diversions along with ways to handle traffic during peak hours. Fifty wardens will be deployed in each of the four stretches, including Aluva-Edappally, Edappally-Kaloor, Kaloor-Kadavanthra and Kadavanthra-Petta.
With barricades set up along several routes for the ongoing metro works, traffic bottlenecks have become persistent across the city.
The training for the traffic wardens will begin at the Helipad ground here from Tuesday. Ex-servicemen have also been roped in for the purpose. The training will be imparted by retired traffic policemen and will continue for a period of 15 days. “Once the training period is over, the wardens will be registered under the Traffic police stations in the city and they will begin duty. Till now, the wardens currently posted at the metro sites have been directly appointed by the sub-contractor/contractor under the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. However, lack of punctuality and the laid-back attitude allegedly shown by the traffic wardens appointed by the contractors had forced them to approach us. Also, the contractors were finding it difficult to control the wardens as they could not monitor them effectively. Based on their requests, we called for fresh appointments,” Traffic Police Assistant Commissioner Baby Vinod said.
He added that the selection procedure was carried out by three private companies.
“Now, we will register them under the Traffic Police. However, the payment will have to be made by the contractors/sub-contractors. Kochi Metro Rail Ltd will have no role in payment for the wardens,” Baby Vinod added.