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This is an archive article published on April 8, 2018

Won’t allow use of ‘tyre-killers’ on Pune roads, say traffic police

‘Installing spikes to puncture tyres, to prevent driving on wrong side, can cause injury or death’

pmpml, pune traffic police, traffic manager suspended, pmpml cmd, sunil gawli suspended, indian express ‘Installing spikes to puncture tyres, to prevent driving on wrong side, can cause injury or death’ (Express/File)

Pune’s traffic police on Saturday said they would not allow any Amanora Park-style experiments in the city, except at vital installations. Amanora Park Town had placed ‘tyre-killers’ on its roads to puncture the tyres of vehicles driven on the wrong side of the road. The spikes were removed on Monday following a notice sent by police.

“We will not give any permission for the kind of mechanism that was installed… It is risky and can cause serious injury or even death of commuters. It is dangerous for ambulances too…,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Ashok Morale.

When asked whether police would study the possibility of using the mechanism, Morale said there were no provisions in law for the implementation of such a system, except at airports and other vital installations. “We are, on our part, taking whatever action we can against wrong-side driving. We have a limited number of staff, but that has not stopped us from taking action against those who drive on the wrong side,” he said.

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Amanora Park Town’s management has, however, sought permission to reinstall the tyre-killers, which were initially installed over a month-and-a-half ago and have spikes to cause damage to the tyres of vehicles on the wrong side of the road. They claimed the move had received support from local residents.

Prashant Inamdar, of Pedestrians First, said, “Amanora Township had installed the mechanism to curb wrong-side driving and ensure safety for children attending school. It had spikes to puncture tyres of vehicles moving in the wrong direction, against the normal flow of traffic. The system was reported to be working well without any incident…”

Wrong-side driving had become rampant in Pune and was a serious threat to people’s lives, especially for pedestrians, Inamdar said. He claimed the traffic police had not been able to curb the menace.

Inamdar urged police and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to study in detail the mechanism installed at Amanora Park before any final decision is taken. The design of the mechanism should not be such that it causes death or serious injury to anyone, he added. “The spikes should not be so sharp as to cause tyres to burst. They should only cause a tyre puncture. It should also not be inconvenient for those driving in the right direction. Prominent retro-reflective signs are needed to give advance warning to drivers. A series of rumbling strips on the road, 25 metres and five metres prior to the location of the mechanism, should also be mandatory. Furthermore, the roads should have footpaths so that pedestrians do not have to step over the mechanism,” he said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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