More cops on roads to help you

The traffic police have prepared a detailed plan, identified vulnerable spots and allocated more manpower for these areas.

Incessant rain, heavy traffic and shoddy roads make a perfect recipe for disaster. Keeping this in mind, the Mumbai traffic police have chalked out a plan to try and reduce the inconvenience commuters have to face during the four months of monsoon.

HT Image

“The traffic police department has prepared a detailed plan, from determining the most water-logging vulnerable spots in the city to providing a time table for high tides,” said Namdeo Chavan, deputy commissioner of police (traffic). The civic body has released the schedule of 29 high-risk days between June and September when the high tides are exceptionally high.

The aim, officials said, is to provide the requisite resources and assistance in case of a crisis.

However, as Allka Shah, member of the Road Safety Advisory Committee for the Mumbai police, pointed out, there’s not much the traffic police can do other than issue advisories to the public and devote manpower to regulate traffic at vulnerable spots.

In the plan, the traffic police have identified 161 spots across the city most vulnerable to water-logging. Bandra has the highest number of such spots, with several of them on the arterial SV Road itself. Last year, the traffic police had identified 90 such spots.

“The traffic police department has identified these spots where there could be heavy water-logging. At these spots, traffic policemen will be deployed and a diversion plan has been chalked out,” said Chavan.

A traffic police sub-inspector and two constables will man spots highly vulnerable to water-logging, which means that an additional 2,200 traffic policemen will get deployed around the city during the monsoon.

The traffic police have also identified 34 major and 60 smaller parking spots that can be used to park vehicles during emergencies such as complete flooding of roads.

These are not necessarily actual parking lots, they are open plots that vehicles can access. The major parking spots will be able to accommodate between 200 and 1,500 cars while the minor parking lots have a capacity for 30 to 150 cars.

The traffic police have also put together a list of contact numbers of agencies, drivers, private vehicles, ambulances, cranes and NGOs and has shared this with several agencies across the city so that it is available in an emergency situation.