Police commissioner bats for traffic training institute
VISAKHAPATNAM: With increasing traffic year by year and the city growing by leaps and bounds, the city police sought a “traffic training institute”, in Visakhapatnam. If all goes well, Vizag will be the first city in AP to have TTI. Hyderabad has one such institute in the combined state.
“We have asked the Police department and expect a positive response. A number of traffic violations are being reported and noticed and the city is expanding. The institute, when set up, will not only help to conduct counselling sessions or awareness camps, but also benefit the traffic police,” city police commissioner T Yoganand told Express.
Police sources said that not all the traffic personnel were well trained on the hand signals and routine procedures they need to take during enforcement. Re-engineering works are being done at a number of junctions for seamless traffic and the city has at least four or five VIPs visiting a month. Citing an example, a senior officer on condition of anonymity said that there was a difference between wrong parking and dangerous parking and the fines will be different which many traffic police on duty do not know. The TTI’s orientation programmes would help solve a number of issues. “The traffic police need to be on their toes and on-the-spot decisions have to be taken.”
The police add with development activities on fast track, rise in number of vehicles is also high. By 2015-end, as per city police records, there were around 10.6 lakh vehicles. As per the officials, a minimum 90,000 to one lakh vehicles hit the city roads every year. So by 2016-end, the number of vehicles could be around 11.5 to 12 lakh.
Giving details, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP-Traffic) K Mahendra Patrudu said that for the police who join duties and for those who shift from Law and Order to Traffic, classes would be conducted on violations, the norms and the enforcement they need to take. Moreover, the TTI would help the on-duty traffic police to tune their minds and follow uniform enforcement. “Classes would be conducted for the traffic police on how to deal with various violations in a subtle way,” he added.
The police also said that more awareness camps would be conducted. At present counselling on drunk driving and zig-zag drivers are being conducted at the Police Commissionerate. Once the TTI materialises, awareness programmes will be conducted on a large scale with trained personnel.