Noida traffic police want a say in approving construction projects

Senior police officers have raised the issue on several occasions and have also written to the authorities that they should be consulted before any permission is given to commercial or residential projects.

The traffic police has demanded a say in approvals given to construction projects in Gautam Budh Nagar. Senior police officers have raised the issue on several occasions and have also written to the authorities that they should be consulted before any permission is given to commercial or residential projects.

Traffic police say that if they had a say in granting approvals, then it would help reduce congestion to a large extent. (Sunil Ghosh /HT Photo)

“We are never kept in the loop while giving approval to construction projects. But when there is jam or any other issue, then the traffic police is invariably blamed. We have been kept out of all procedures such as issuance of permits, registration of vehicles, etc. There are several upcoming projects which are going to worsen the traffic situation in Noida but there is very little we can about that,” said AK Jha, superintendent of police, traffic.

Recently, the Noida authority has started taking the opinion of the traffic police on certain issues such as structure and size of roads outside of malls and residential complexes, but their role in policy decisions is not substantial.

Jha said that recently, the authority engineers had come to him for suggestions on building an underpass near Hajipur. The engineers had reportedly sought the traffic police’s opinion on the traffic volume at the junction as well as their suggestion on the structure of a U-turn near the underpass.

“These days, engineers of the Noida authority do come at times to take our opinion on certain matters. But it is of no use because the permission is already given for the construction. We do give our suggestions if it can make the situation better,” Jha said.

However, the Noida authority officials put forward a different view.

“We take suggestions from the traffic police on traffic-related projects as and when required. For example, when we had started work on the traffic park in Sector 108 in 2012, we had sought their advice,” said Sandip Chandra, senior project engineer, Noida authority.

Jha said a 23-floor residential building, which is coming up near Rajnigandha intersection, is going to create huge traffic mess and yet, nobody from the traffic department was consulted before the approval for construction was given.

“A mall, which is coming up in Sector 75, will also create traffic issues because it won’t have enough parking space and people will end up parking on the road,” Jha said.

He also said a huge mall in Sector 32 was currently creating a traffic nuisance every time people move out of the mall after watching movies.

“Any day, when a big movie such as Padmavati is released, it creates havoc on the road outside the mall as around 4,000 cars end up jostling for space,” he said.

Senior superintendent of police Love Kumar has also raised the need to keep the traffic police in loop while giving approvals to construction.

“We have demanded several times that the traffic police should also have a role in giving approvals because, at the end of the day, it is our duty to maintain traffic order. Time and again, we have asked for this but nothing concrete has been done,” he said.

District magistrate BN Singh is also of the view that the opinion of traffic police is important in giving permissions for any type of construction project.

“The traffic police plays an important role in controlling the chaos on roads. Their opinion should be taken seriously by the authorities concerned as they are experts on the issue,” Singh said.