BENGALURU: Home Minister G Parameshwara called for strengthening the city’s infrastructure to address its traffic issues.
“Bengaluru is unable to handle the traffic pressure. There are 58 lakh vehicles now...of which 33 lakh are two-wheelers. The infrastructure needs to be strengthened,” Parameshwara said. On Friday, the minister visited the Traffic Management Centre and interacted with the police top brass.
Parameshwara called for the revival of the Bangalore Traffic Management Task Force, established in 2004-05, which has been defunct so far. This force will involve various stakeholders such as the BDA, BBMP, BWSSB, who will study the city’s traffic and take adequate steps to alleviate the issue.
Parameshwara also mooted the idea of banning heavy vehicles in the city during certain hours and encourage car-pooling. “Discussions with lorry owners’ associations will be held so that heavy vehicles can be banned during peak hours,” he said.
About 36,000 vehicles and 45,000 individuals have registered with the Traffic Department for carpooling, a traffic police personnel said. By next year, the number of registered carpooling vehicles could increase to 50,000, he added.
Another initiative that has been planned is that of returning 50 per cent of fines collected due to various offences back to the department. “This way, the funds collected can be used to strengthen the traffic police in terms of updating their Blackberry devices and increasing the number of CCTV cameras,” Parameshwara added.