‘We will soon submit a proposal to govt to incorporate AI for traffic policing’: Anil Kumbhare

Anil Kumbhare: Currently, there are about 61 infrastructural projects taking place in the city but we had to divert the routes only on four roads as renovation work is taking place on the Sion bridge, Karnak bridge, Reay road bridge and Bellasis bridge. It has come to our notice that traffic was getting affected due to barricades installed for Metro’s construction work. After constantly following up with the relevant authorities and the contractors, we have removed the barricades at BKC, SV road and JVLR, where the pillars of the Metro line were already constructed. This helped create additional lanes and smoothen vehicular movement.

For festivals, we will deploy extra manpower on the roads leading to the immersion points on the last day of Ganesh Visarjan. Also, as vehicular movement would be affected at Girgaon, Marine Drive, Pedder Road, and Worli due to immersion on the Chowpatty, on our request, BMC opened the coastal road for 24 hours, due to which the whole traffic is now being diverted. We are hoping there will not be much of a problem for commuters.

For Navratri and Diwali, people visit markets in huge numbers, and the crowd hinders the smooth traffic flow. We will seek support from the local police to manage the crowd, which should help ensure the traffic is not affected.

Q. Potholes in Mumbai are a major concern as they could cause accidents and also slow down vehicular movements. How often does the traffic department reach out to the civic body to fill potholes? What are the challenges the Mumbai traffic department faces?

Anil Kumbhare: Taking care of potholes has not been a big challenge for us because we interact with the BMC and MMRDA in real time. The moment our department reports any issue to the BMC ward officer concecrned or any larger issue to the assistant municipal commissioner and MMRDA, they immediately take cognisance and fill the potholes overnight.

Q. What measures is the traffic department taking to reduce the accidents and fatalities in the city?

Anil Kumbhare: Depending on the number of accidents and fatalities, we identified 30 black spots in the city, and one common phenomenon which came to light was that motorists cannot locate the divider before entering a flyover. This causes an accident. So we approached BMC for help, and it installed red reflective plastic bollards before the flyovers to help the drivers. Also, we have removed 129 speed breakers across the city that were illegally constructed and have even filled unwarranted gaps between the dividers. These measures have helped us reduce accidents and fatalities by at least 28 per cent from last year.

Q. Looking at the density of vehicles on roads, do we have sufficient manpower to control the traffic?

Anil Kumbhare: About 47 lakh vehicles are registered with the RTOs in Mumbai. More than 8 lakh vehicles come to Mumbai from six entry points, and the numbers are increasing daily. However, traffic worldwide is not man-oriented; it can be managed using technology. For instance, we do not require any personnel on the whole stretch of the coastal road, so manpower is utilised at other locations where traffic frictions occur.

Q. Do you think adopting more technological assistance (like artificial intelligence) in the functioning of traffic police may help the department function more effectively?

Anil Kumbhare: Traffic enforcement through artificial intelligence will help a city like Mumbai. Our team is researching and will soon submit a proposal to the government to incorporate AI into the system. It is called an intelligent traffic management system. With the help of advanced technology, a camera will capture multiple images of violations and e-challans will be generated automatically.

Q. Do you think e-challan systems effectively function and deter motorists from violating traffic rules? What means have we adopted to recover pending e-challans?

Anil Kumbhare: Yes, it is a very effective system because violators are currently being penalised through on-field e-challan machines and speed cameras. But, there should be a system where fines can be deducted directly from the violator’s account so that they think twice before breaking any rule again.

During nakabandis and other checking, we continuously ask people to pay the fine immediately. A link for payment is also included in the message. If they fail to pay, they will receive notices from Lok Adalat. On July 27, we had Lok Adalat, and we recovered about Rs 18 crore in fines in a single day.