Latest News For 'Hyderabad Traffic News'
February 9th, 2007
Hyderabad: Outgoing additional commissioner of police (traffic) A K Khan is in favour of pillion riders too wearing a helmet to reduce fatalities in accidents.
Khan addressed his last press conference as traffic chief as he has been transferred as head of the fire services department. Khan said like the real estate boom, the city was witnessing a ‘vehicle boom’ in the last five years. About 5 lakh vehicles were added in the city and about 2.93 lakh vehicles were added after he took charge as additional commissioner traffic 21 months ago, Khan told reporters on Thursday, his last day with the city traffic police.
He said though there were several measures to regulate traffic, the permanent solution would be an effective public transport system for the city. “In Hyderabad, only 43 per cent people use public transport while it is 70 per cent in cities like Delhi,’’ he said. Giving details of road accidents in the city, he said 45 per cent of the total road accidents happened at night and 30 per cent of victims were riding pillion. He said, “helmet for pillion riders was necessary to save their lives”.
On traffic violations, Khan said the traffic wing had sent a proposal to the state government to hike penalties for various violations. “Unfortunately even RTC drivers violate traffic rules,’’ he said.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad-epaper)
February 6th, 2007
Hyderabad: In a change of tack, the traffic police in the city will no longer stop motorists to penalise for violations, and instead will replicate the e-Challan system that the Cyberabad police has put in place.
The Cyberabad police had on an experimental basis introduced the e-Challan system a few months ago where the vehicle registration numbers of traffic violators would be punched into a hand-held portable data assistants (PDAs). At the end of the day, the PDAs are connected to a computer and the data of the erring vehicle owners are generated with the aid of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA). Challans are then sent to the offenders’ addresses in 24 hours, much to the relief of the traffic police. “We have studied the system of e-Challan introduced by our counterparts in Cyberabad and it will be replicated here,” Hyderabad city police commissioner Balwinder Singh said at a ‘Meet The Press’ programme organised
by the Hyderabad Union of Journalists (HUJ) here on Monday.
With RTA not having latest data on vehicles, the Cyberabad police are already facing problems in locating the violators.
To avoid mistakes, the Hyderabad Traffic Police would note down the registration number of the violator along with the make and colour of the vehicle to ensure that cases are booked accurately, Singh said.
To a query on why police were concentrating on penalising rather than streamlining traffic, additional commissioner of police (traffic) A K Khan said such personnel would be suspended on the spot if found issuing challans during rush hour.
“Nearly 91 per cent of our strength is utilised for regulating traffic while the remaining is for enforcement drive,” Khan said. Singh said drunken driving would also be dealt with severely as it was resulting in increasing number of fatal accidents. “By next year, we will make it mandatory for pillion riders to wear helmets too,” he added. On the crime scenario, Singh said the main concern of the city police was property offences, particularly snatching chains and automobile thefts.
“Last month, 55 cases of chain snatching, approximately two per day, were reported. The detection rate is also at a higher rate and 70 cases were detected. But, the problem is offenders were getting released on bail and we would request the court not to grant bail to such offenders,” Singh said.
Singh said two police personnel from every police station would be trained in collecting finger prints from the scene of offence as there were constraints on the Clues Teams. To a specific query on whether the city police commissioner’s tenure was dependent on the official’s equation with the MIM, Singh refused to comment.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad-epaper)
January 23rd, 2007
Hyderabad: The next time you get caught in a traffic jam, stop cursing your fate and just ponder over these statistics: nearly 50 per cent commuters use personal transport, 42 per cent take RTC buses, as many as 2,00,000 new vehicles are being added every year and roads are laid on just a meagre four per cent of the total area of the city. And, topping all these facts, 75 lakh motorised trips by over 20 lakh vehicles cause traffic jams over 150 kms of road everyday.
These mind-boggling statistics were revealed by traffic engineering experts and authorities at a round table conference on ‘Traffic and Hyderabad City,’ organised by Society for Preservation of Environment and Quality of Life and the Institution of Engineers (India) here on Monday.
About 20 lakh vehicles are registered in the city which has a population of 70 lakh. In simple terms, every third person has a vehicle. Of them, 11 lakh vehicles are two-wheelers and three lakh cars. “There should be an effective public transport system for the city. A national policy should be brought in to restrict the number of vehicles or to discourage private transport,” the experts opined.
“Narrow roads, encroachments on roads, lack of awareness among motorists and no integrated approach to tackle the problem are the prime reasons for traffic congestion in the city,’’ Huda vicechairman Jayesh Ranjan told the gathering.
He said a unified metropolitan transport authority would be created for better coordination among different departments like MCH, Huda, RTC, Traffic Police, RTA and Roads and Buildings. “The new authority will become operational in a few weeks,’’ he added.
“Of the total 75 lakh motorised trips, only 40 per cent are public transport vehicles like RTC and it should be increased to 60 to 70 per cent. Road widening, improvement of junctions and construction of flyovers are only temporary solutions to the traffic woes. The permanent solution would be public transport,’’ MCH additional commissioner N V S Reddy said.
Only one-third of the carriageway was being used, and the rest was wasted for various reasons like encroachments on roads, improper parking and lack of bus bays and auto bays, Reddy said.
Earlier, RTC buses used to take two to three minutes to travel a kilometre in the city, but now the travel time has increased to four to five minutes due to traffic jams. Bus bays are not being taken care of by the officials while widening roads, experts observed.
JNTU Prof P Ramachandra Reddy said the one-way traffic rule would not provide an easy solution to the traffic chaos. There was a hue and cry when the one-way traffic rule was imposed at Liberty and Banjara Hills-Jubilee Hills stretch and the traffic police had to withdraw the restriction later, he added.
Engineering Staff College of India director and moderator of the meet S Nagabhushana Rao said the recommendations of the experts and participants would be sent to the government.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad-epaper)
January 22nd, 2007
HYDERABAD: The traffic police are keen to teach a lesson or two to ‘culprits’ in road accidents. Towards that end, employees working in IT and BPO companies will henceforth be attending lectures on traffic safety measures to be followed while driving vehicles.
A survey conducted by the traffic police on accidents in the twin cities has revealed that these employees in the age group of 20 to 30 years are one of the major victims in road accidents.
The situation was alarming during weekends due to drunken driving, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) A.K. Khan told reporters here on Sunday.
Advice to firms He said the information had been passed on to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), including 57 software firms in the city.
“We have advised the IT and BPO companies to conduct separate lectures to their employees keeping in view their safety,” he said. He said companies had agreed to take up separate sessions very soon.
Mr. Khan said enforcement was made tougher from Saturday night and hereafter special drives would be conducted in coordination with the law and order police near pubs and bars to crack down on drunken drivers.
Over 1,600 cases were booked against motorists for committing different violations on Saturday night. Of these cases, 483 cases were registered for driving in intoxicated condition.
Instead of imposing penalty of Rs.500 after registering cases under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act, cases would be booked under Section 185 under the Act in which the motorist could be detained and handed over to the police on the charge of drunken driving.
Jail for 6 months Besides, a motorist could be punishable for six months of imprisonment and Rs.1,000 fine if he is booked under Section 279 (rash driving) of the Indian Penal Code.
Such violators would be booked under these two Sections henceforth, Mr. Khan warned.
Source: The Hindu(Hyderabad-epaper)
January 19th, 2007
Hyderabad: In view of President A P J Abdul Kalam’s visit to the city, the traffic police placed restrictions in the city on Friday and Saturday. Traffic would be stopped or diverted on the following routes. Friday: 9.30 pm to 10 pm
Airport, PNT Junction, Shyamlal building, HPS, Begu-mpet flyover, Greenlands, Rajiv Ga-ndhi statue, Yashoda hospital, Villa Mary college, Raj Bhavan, Viswesvaraya statue.
On Saturday: 9.45 am to 10.30 am Raj Bhavan, Monappa Island, Greenlands, Begumpet flyover, HPS, Allauddin building, PNT, Rasoolpura and CTO Junctions, Balamrai, Brooke Bond crossroads, Imperial Garden. 10.30 am to 11.30 am: Imperial Garden, Brooke Bond junction, Balamrai, CTO junction, Rasoolpura junction, PNT, Airport.
5.30 pm to 6.25 pm:
Airport, PNT junction, Rasoolpura junction, Minister road, Nallagutta, Ranigunj junction, Karbala Maida, Children’s Park, Upper Tankbund, Ambedkar statue, Liberty junction, Basheerbagh flyover, BJR statue, Gunfoundry SBH junction, Chermas, Taj Mahal hotel and Bata ‘T’ junctions, Abids police station, GPO, Troop Bazar, Ba-nk Street, Koti and Putlibowli junctions, Viveka Vardhini college.
6.30 pm to 7.45 pm: Viveka Vardhini college, Putlibowli junction, Feroz Gandhi Park, Troop Bazar, Sagar medicals, Gadwal House, GPO, Abids police station, Boggulkunta, Bata ‘T’ junction, Hotel Taj Mahal ‘T’ junction, Chermas, SBH Gunfoundry, BJR statue junction, King Koti, Basheerbagh junction, Liberty junction, Ambedkar statue junction, Upper Tankbund, Children’s Park, Karbala Maidan, Ranigunj, Nallagutta, Minister road, KIMS, Rasoolpura junction, PNT junction, Airport road.
Source: TOI(Hyderabad-epaper)
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