BANGALORE: With Bangalore traffic police re-launching the traffic SMS alert on Friday, those who had registered for the service earlier have been asked to re-register with the traffic police again.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Internal Security) Dr M A Saleem told Express “Nearly 18,000 subscribers are using the SMS facility. Now, we have brought in some changes in the rules. Subscription has to be renewed by sending an SMS to a new number. Apart from Delhi and Bangalore cities, no other city has this facility. This initiative helps commuters in avoiding the roads that are heavily congested.”
However, one disadvantage of this service is that, commuters cannot revert and alert the officials in case of traffic jam on a particular road. They will have to contact 100 or 103 and inform the police control room, who will alert the traffic police station concerned.
To address this problem, Dr Saleem said he will discuss the matter with Deputy Inspector General of Police (Wireless) to explore the possibilities of providing a dedicated number to alert the officials. With this, commuters will be able to can send traffic alerts.
This will expand the network, and traffic personnel can get into action to clear congestion. The department sends two alerts in the morning and evening respectively. Special alert messages will be sent in case of any problem, he added.
However, according to rules, a driver is not supposed to operate mobile phone while driving. Which means, a pillion rider or other occupants of a vehicle will have to inform the control room.