Trauma Care Kozhikode (TRACK) has mooted the involvement of the Kozhikode Corporation for proper traffic management in the city.
The idea of ‘traffic wardens’ under the Corporation has been proposed as a solution to the traffic issues over which neither the police nor the Motor Vehicles department (MVD) has any legal responsibility.
There are a few hundred traffic hotspots in the city. But with the current strength of the traffic police, they are unable to reach everywhere. The police and the MVD share the role of traffic enforcement agencies most of the time, but neither of them is bound by the responsibility of enforcing traffic rules. The Road Safety Authority has not developed into a specialised agency yet. In this situation, trained traffic wardens in the cities, under the control of Corporations, would come in handy, TRACK president C.M. Pradeep Kumar told The Hindu.
“Police officers in the city change quite often, and the new officers may not be aware of the traffic management systems followed by their predecessors. This makes enforcement difficult for them. On the other hand, traffic wardens could be local people well informed about the traffic situation in the city and hence could act more effectively,” he said.
On the other hand, the Corporation, which is in charge of roads, bridges, footpaths, and bus stands, could play a constructive role in managing traffic, he added.
According to TRACK, the Corporation should have its own mass transportation system. “A few low floor buses running across the city in loops could ease traffic congestion to a great extent,” Mr. Pradeep Kumar said. “In fact, the Central government had sanctioned a few buses for the same purpose, which were hijacked by the KSRTC though,” he added.
TRACK is fine-tuning the proposal that may be submitted to the Mayor soon.
