Food for thought: For every traffic cop in Dehradun, 2,676 vehicles
Uttarakhand now has more than 24 lakh registered vehicles. In 2000, when the state was formed, it had only 42,000 vehicles
In 17 years of its existence, Uttarakhand has seen an exponential rise in the number of vehicles being bought— from 42,000 registered vehicles in 2000 when the state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh to 24 lakh in 2017, a top official said Saturday.
“The state accounts for 0.03% of the total deaths in the road accidents in the country. There’s an urgent need to educate the youngsters to refrain from rash driving and for instilling awareness towards traffic rules,” Director General of Police Anil Raturi said.
He was addressing a seminar on road safety at St Joseph’s Academy.
Addressing the seminar, SSP, Dehradun, Nivedita Kukreti said the population of Dehradun is 7.5 lakhs and the district has more than 10 lakh registered vehicles. He said, there were 386 traffic personnel in Dehradun translating into one traffic personnel for every 2,676 vehicles. This ratio goes up to 1:5,200 at tourist spots.
The SSP stressed on the need for increasing the number of traffic personnel and initiating measures for traffic management. She pointed out that already the police department was trying to ensure that the left turn at all major intersections was kept free. She pointed out that school timing and parking on their campuses was another important issue and they were in talks with the schools on this.
Vikas Garg, the regional chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry, said that the police must be well equipped to deal with the surge of tourists in Dehradun and Musoorie on weekends. He also requested the traffic department to dedicate certain routes for trucks so that they are not parked by the side of the roads leading to traffic jams. He also urged the government to designate the canal route for the Kanwad Yatra so that the industries did not suffer due to closure of Meerut-Haridwar highway for 12 days during the annual event.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and transport minister Yashpal Arya were also present at the event that was convened by assistant inspector general, traffic, Kewal Khurana, Additional DGP Ashok Kumar, principal of St Joseph’s Academy Babu Verghese, regional transport officer, Dehradun, Sudhanshu Garg and road engineering expert from IIT Roorkee Rajat Rastogi.