New Delhi, July 10 -- Delhi Traffic Police has issued over 48 lakh challans and registered more than 2,100 FIRs for dangerous driving so far this year, while making eight key road stretches signal-free and stepping up engineering measures to ease congestion across the national capital, officials said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manish Aggarwal said the department is focusing on long-term engineering solutions alongside sustained enforcement to improve traffic movement.
A total of 48.42 lakh challans were issued for various traffic violations during the current year, up from 47.52 lakh in the corresponding period last year. Of these, 17.21 lakh were generated through Red-Light Violation Detection (RLVD) and Over Speed Violation Detection
(OSVD) systems.
Aggarwal said the traffic police studied 25 road stretches to identify measures for easing congestion. Of these, eight have already been made signal-free by closing redundant traffic signals, removing unauthorised median cuts, providing U-turns and rationalising intersections. The corridors include the NSP-Rithala Metro Station stretch and Vikas Marg between Laxmi Nagar and Karkari More.
Another 25 stretches have now been identified for similar studies to assess whether they can also be converted into signal-free corridors, he added.
The officer said analytical data from navigation platforms showed congestion had reduced on several corridors during the October-December period following coordinated traffic management measures. "Our primary objective is better regulation of traffic. Consistent enforcement has also resulted in improved road discipline and has positively influenced commuter behaviour," Aggarwal said.
The traffic police, in coordination with agencies including the PWD, MCD, NHAI, DMRC and DTC, also undertook engineering interventions at major congestion hotspots such as ISBT Kashmere Gate, Majnu Ka Tila, Ashram Chowk, Adhchini village, Anand Vihar and Kalindi Kunj.
Aggarwal said 62 congestion points across the city were reviewed in a meeting chaired by the Lieutenant Governor. While noticeable improvement was observed at several locations, structural changes have been recommended for four stretches where results were not satisfactory.
Project SANGAM, launched on April 3 to encourage citizen participation in traffic management, has so far held 309 stakeholder meetings and received 514 suggestions. Of these, 368 have been implemented, while the remaining have been referred to the concerned agencies.
The Road Safety Cell reached more than 2.84 lakh school students and over 15.44 lakh members of the public through awareness campaigns during the first six months of the year. It also trained more than 11,000 DTC drivers and conductors and sensitised over 12,000 TSR, taxi and e-rickshaw drivers.
Aggarwal also announced the launch of "Traffic Pathshala", an initiative aimed at educating commuters on road safety, traffic discipline and responsible driving practices.
Ahead of the monsoon, Delhi Traffic Police identified 169 waterlogging-prone locations in coordination with civic agencies and shared the details with them. Six disaster management vehicles equipped with motor pumps and tree-cutting machines have been deployed for emergency response, while around 1,200 additional personnel provided by the Delhi government will be deployed on a rotational basis to manage traffic and respond to rain-related congestion.
Between January and June, 14 traffic police personnel were injured and one lost his life while performing traffic regulation and enforcement duties, the police said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.