‘Install enforcement cameras on JJ flyover’

The police had installed five speed breakers on the stretch, but this only lead to slow moving traffic.

After the deployment of personnel and installation of speed-control infrastructure like speed breakers and rumbler strips failed to control accidents involving two wheelers on the JJ Flyover in south Mumbai, the Mumbai traffic police are now writing to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), asking the authority to install enforcement cameras on the flyover.

The traffic police had imposed the ban since April 2010 after a study revealed that the flyover was one of the most dangerous ones for two-wheelers due to its sharp curves as well as the tendency of motorists, especially two-wheeler riders, to drive at a high speed. The ban was challenged by a group of bike enthusiasts in the Bombay High Court, and around a year later, the HC upheld the ban. Frequent measures by the traffic police since then have failed to discourage offenders.

The traffic police have now decided to write to MSRDC, asking them to install four enforcement cameras on the flyover, so that the speeding two-wheelers, as well as other vehicles can be penalised. “The high end cameras will be able to record the speed and capture the picture of the number plate of the offending vehicle. The cameras will also capture incidents of lane cutting and other traffic offences,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B K Upadhyay.

Officers said that once the cameras are installed, they will send fine slips to the offenders caught on camera, after tracing their addresses using the number plate.

The traffic police had also requested similar cameras on the Eastern Freeway and the Bandra Worli Sea Link in August this year, and installation work has already begun for the sea link.

An almost every day measure is to deploy policemen at both ends of the flyover to try and stop two-wheelers from getting on to the flyover, backed up with barricades. The traffic police officers said that two-wheeler riders dodge the policemen, and ride in a rash and haphazard manner, leading to accidents.

The police had also installed five speed breakers on the stretch, but this only lead to slow moving traffic and congestion. The police then installed rumblers on both lanes of the flyover, but even that did not help, said officers.

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“There are a few steep curves on the flyover which are dangerous for speeding vehicles. During odd hours, the two-wheelers speed on the flyover and crash into the side walls or the divider,” said Upadhyay.

megha.sood@expressindia.com

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