In the driver’s seat

I still love teaching. I also used to spend a lot of time with my kids and enjoyed teaching them until three years ago. Since I joined here in Pune as DCP traffic,I have not been able to give time for all this. A large chunk of my time goes into doing things I am not supposed to and answering questions not pertaining to my area of work.

When it comes to policy matters and decision-making about issues like parking plan and rickshaws,you have to deal with three to four agencies. Can you tell us about the status of various schemes you had announced in the past?

Let me correct you on one thing; the number of agencies we have to deal with for smooth implementation of schemes is about 10 to 15,like various civic bodies,cantonment boards,transport authorities,central bodies and private players. So,it is very complicated. Thus,we have always stressed on the need for a central umbrella authority to deal with traffic and transport issues. When we talk of parking policy,its implementation starts with purchase of vehicles. Can we afford to allow so many vehicles being added every day? The number of vehicles in Pune have grown 100 times in the last 30 years,but the roads have grown only three to four times. I am in favour of a policy that allows you to buy a second car only if you have enough parking space owned by you. If you take the example of Laxmi Road,our survey had revealed that 90 per cent of the two-wheelers parked there belong to shop owners. The way out is to charge heavily for parking after two hours. It would reduce the traffic menace and also streamline the congestion to an extent.

You have always been talking about the need for a traffic engineer for the city? What exactly is traffic engineering?

Traffic engineering basically refers to a holistic approach towards traffic planning. For example,we decide to build a road and put a divider on it. A traffic engineer will imagine and simulate the future traffic on the road and accordingly make decisions. Locations of over-bridges,flyovers,footpaths will all be marked with prior planning and calculations. It is found that more than 25 per cent of the accidents take place because of bad road conditions. Traffic engineering ensures no such incidences occur.

Pune,for the first time,has a computer engineer as DCP traffic. How do you look at the traffic problem in the city in the coming years?

A comprehensive travel planning system that will provide you the route with minimum distance,maximum convenience and that which suits your economic capacity is the need of the time. If one can see on his cellphone the traffic congestion on his way to a place within the city,he or she can plan another route,avoid congestion and make it easy for us to manage jams. We are presently working with Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture to design a website on these lines.

We talk about taking action against errant motorists and four-wheeler drivers,but there is no provision to control jay-walkers. Do you think even jay-walkers should be fined?

I agree that jay-walkers must be penalised. However,the current legal provision is very tedious for this offence. The traffic police are expected to arrest the jay-walker,produce him before the court and the court has to penalise him/ her. It is impractical to prosecute a jay-walker in this manner. Presently,the Rules of Road Regulation,1989,are only at the central government level. I have written to the state government to frame state-level rules as well. These rules can be used to prosecute pedestrians and all those vehicles that cannot be directly fined by the traffic police right now like vehicles below 50 cc power,road rollers,JCBs etc.

Why are pre-paid auto booths a failure?

There were several issues pertaining to the pre-paid booth functioning when it was launched initially in Pune. Essentially,the booth which was located on the premises of the railway station had to be managed by railway authorities. There were a lot of issues pertaining to the permissions and finally we have got clearances from the railway authorities. We plan to roll out a pre-paid autorickshaw scheme from the railway station within a month. We are also in the process of obtaining permissions to have a pre-paid autorickshaw booth at the Shivajinagar ST stand and at Swargate. We are in the process of finalising the agency where Re 1 will be charged as service charge from the consumer.

Tell us about your tenure as additional SP at Karad? People there still remember you for the way you curbed crime.

Karad is a place with a lot of political and communal polarity. When we made a list of criminals with more than three serious crimes registered against them,the number was 80 in Karad as against Kolhapur where it was 72,with five times the population. I handpicked a team of officers to work on crime. Without their support,the job would have been impossible.

We have heard about a new idea that you have in mind – ‘Friends of Traffic Police’. What is it exactly?

We currently have a strength of 800 traffic cops. That is certainly not enough for a city as big as Pune. I meet many people who wish to contribute to traffic management voluntarily. We are thinking about training all such people in lots and prepare them for manning traffic at places where we cannot reach. We are yet to delve into its legal aspects. But adding a force of 2,000 well-educated volunteers to our existing force would be a great idea. We would be choosing them from the people who approach us. This is still at an ideation level. If we can provide them I-cards to give it a legal stature,I am sure the idea would click.

When will you be resuming the lifting of vehicles parked in the no-parking zone?

We have finalised the contracts with tempo owners and have also omitted many against whom we had received complaints.

When will the city get rid of the ordeal it has go through when VIPs come to the city?

We have now changed the routes by which VIPs travel from the airport to their destinations,so it does not obstruct the traffic. But if they have to travel to a place within the city,diversions are unavoidable. These days,VIPs themselves do not want traffic to be affected. Our Facebook drive has done something interesting. When politicians put pressure on us for not taking action,we tell them it has already been put on Facebook by people,so we cannot avoid taking action. That immediately makes them retract.

You are nearing the end of your tenure as DCP traffic,Pune. Would you want to continue for some more time?

No,I think it’s time for me to move on.