BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to curb wrong side driving, Commissionerate Police has decided to install spike barriers or tyre killers on roads, a first of its kind experiment in the Capital. Spike barriers are designed to cut into tyres of vehicles moving on the wrong side puncturing them.Informing about the decision, Twin City Commissioner of Police Sudhanshu Sarangi said it has been planned to install tyre killers in front of Esplanade One Mall here on a pilot basis. The first set will most likely be procured from Pune, he added.
Prior to announcing the decision, the CP had undertaken a comprehensive study of the facility. Traffic DCP Sagarika Nath was on a three-day tour of Hyderabad recently to study various measures implemented by Traffic Police there to check wrong side driving.Bomikhal flyover has compounded the woes of Traffic Police, the reason being commuters using the unidirectional bridge as a bidirectional one in a bid to take a short-cut. Nath said the end of Bomikhal flyover has been selected as there is a possibility of speeding vehicles coming down the incline near the mall colliding with commuters taking short cut on to the bridge resulting in mishaps.
Commissionerate Police has identified about 242 wrong side driving spots in the Twin City and of them 32 are ‘critical junctions’. If the spike barrier experiment at Bomikhal flyover turns out to be successful, the system will be replicated at critical junctions, Nath added.
“Wrong side driving is a non-compoundable offence and we everyday detect at least 10 such violations in the Capital. Apart from regular checking, a special drive is also being carried out every week to curb the menace,” Nath said.Police has also requested National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to install spike barriers at four exit points on NH-16 between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to curb wrong side driving.
Pilot project
The first spike barrier will come up in front of Esplanade One
On success, system to be replicated at 32 critical junctions in Twin City
242 wrong side driving spots identified in the two cities