Ensuring free flow of traffic is Singha’s priority

The CoP wanted to know what the officials had been doing when the traffic movement went awry on many arterial roads on Tuesday. 

Karan Singha, who had made public his interest for traffic management during his maiden press conference as the City Commissioner of Police, pulled up the officials after he found huge traffic blocks on many roads during his drive to office from Mogappair on Tuesday morning. 

The CoP, who had on Monday given instructions to the officials to work towards easing the traffic on arterial roads, was annoyed when he found nothing had worked on the ground as the chaos prevailed on Tuesday as well. 

“He pulled up the traffic officials over the mike and wanted to know what they had been doing when the vehicles were caught in long traffic snarls on arterial roads,” a city police official told DTNext. 

“The Commissioner would take steps to ensure smooth flow of traffic,” the official added. 

Traffic snarls are a regular phenomenon, particularly during peak hours as motorists show scant regard for traffic signals. 

MTC buses are the main culprits as they hardly stop at signals and always force other vehicles also to violate traffic rules as well. The traffic officials on duty never bother to book cases against these erring drivers and this adds to the traffic woes. 

The ongoing Metro Rail work and shortage of manpower were the main reasons the traffic police department flag as reasons for not implementing the rules. 

Sources said that most of the time, the traffic police personnel overlook lane and signal violations and rash driving as they do not have the manpower to book cases against the violators and at the same time manage traffic too.