BENGALURU: Bangalore Traffic Police’s (BTP) novel initiative of installing mannequins dressed up as traffic policemen at junctions to crack down on traffic snarls has taken off. Now, citizens want these to be installed in bus priority lanes (BPL) to stop people from entering it. These mannequins have been installed in junctions where there are a large number of traffic violations. So far 70 mannequins have been installed in various parts of the city.
Tara Krishnaswamy from Citizens for Bengaluru said, “The mannequin should also sport a placard which reads that the was lane is only for buses.”Srinivas Allavali, from CfB said, “The mannequins will be a good deterrent. These mannequins need to be around to ensure that people do not take these lanes for granted.”
Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), B R Ravikanthe Gowda, pointed out that 200 mannequins will be installed and that the traffic police are looking into installing it even near the BPLs. “We will have these mannequins installed in BPLs and will keep changing its location so that violators do not think it is just a mannequin and break the rules. Whenever it is removed from the spot, a traffic policemen will be placed in its place,” Gowda said.A commuter near Meenakshi Mall said, “From a distance, I saw a traffic policeman, so I stopped by bike and put on my helmet. When I got closer I saw it was a mannequin.”