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Advertisements to be put up on traffic booths in city
The Pune Police have installed 23 booths at Swargate, Sahakarnagar, Satara Road, Market Yard, Senapati Bapat Road, and Baner to check traffic congestion on various major and internal roads since November 2022
PUNE Most of the traffic booths that the police department installed on footpaths to allow traffic police to monitor and regulate vehicular movement in different areas, including the city’s important chowks, will be used for putting up advertisements.
The Pune Police have installed 23 booths at Swargate, Sahakarnagar, Satara Road, Market Yard, Senapati Bapat Road, and Baner to check traffic congestion on various major and internal roads since November 2022. However, these booths have been under-utilised as traffic cops are found on roads regulating the traffic.
Madhav Jagtap, head, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) anti-encroachment department, who also heads the sky sign department, said, the traffic police recently had applied for advertisement rights on these booths.
“After receiving the application, the PMC has approved it and accordingly advertisements will be put out,” he said.
When traffic police had set up these booths, it was reasoned that these booths would help induce fear among traffic violators and also act as shelters for police personnel to seek shelter during rains or cold weather.
Civic activist Vivek Velankar, however, raised the question of the intention of these booths. Velankar said, “We have hardly seen the traffic police using these structures. We can understand if it is being used by police but if they are not using them, then why in the first place were they set up? Now, the intention behind it is clear as they are officially going to be used for advertisement purposes.”
“There is a need to remove it urgently as they are blocking the footpaths,” he said.
Nitin Kadam, head, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) urban cell, said, “Ideally the police should be manning the traffic on the roads, but hardly they are found doing the traffic regulation. They are mostly busy in action with the group. If they will sit in these booths, who will follow the rules.”
“The traffic police are never seen in these booths. Now by calling advertisements on it, the intention is very clear that they want to collect revenue. There is a need to remove it and clear footpaths for pedestrians,” he said.
The booths, when set up, were sponsored by a Gujarat-based company. Earlier too, the city had such traffic booths, but most of them were removed or demolished a few years ago to make way for wider footpaths, and new roads.
One of the traffic police constables on duty on Satara Road, where one such booth has been set up, said, “It was not our demand to have these booths. We hardly used it. We prefer to stand near trees while performing our duty.”
Ramesh Datar, a resident of Sant Nagar, said, “I used to walk on the Satara Road footpath daily. I hardly saw any traffic police in these booths since they were. There is no use of these booths rather than obstructing the footpaths.”
Another citizen Chayya Saunke said, “By installing the booths which are unutilised the police are blocking the footpaths and causing inconvenience to commuters.”
