Considering the worsening traffic situation which has resulted in incidents of road rage, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Pune Commissioner of Police (CP) to conduct a review of the traffic situation and submit a report.
The court said that, based on the findings of the report, it will propose the constitution of an expert committee to study the current traffic measures available to manage the same and steps to better equip the traffic department so that modern technological methods and equipment may be deployed to ease traffic in the city of Pune.
The PIL on traffic management
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed in 2015 by Pune-resident Kishore Mansukhani and four others highlighting the poor traffic management in the city that has a large number of motor vehicles, especially two wheelers.
The grievances were “in respect of various problems including road rage which results on account of not so adequate traffic management”, a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor said.
An affidavit was filed by the DCP (Traffic) on August 31, 2015, providing details of measures taken by the department including daily accident reports, 1250 CCTV cameras, computerisation, wi-fi, Facebook page, email facility and WhatApp groups of officers for sharing important information as well as traffic regulation.
However, the lawyers for the petitioners, senior advocate Anil Anturkar with advocate Rushikesh Barge, submitted that the measures taken are “too late and too little.” Anturkar, while referring to the start of email facility and WhatsApp groups, said, “Are you calling it progress? Even high school students create WhatsApp groups.” The senior advocate gave examples of Goa, Surat and the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. “If you exceed the limit, you are immediately snapped (sic),” Anturkar added.
Need for "fresh assessment"
The bench opined that there was a need for “fresh assessment” of the traffic situation in Pune city. The CP has also been directed to convene a meeting of the officers of every department concerned and “after deliberation” file his affidavit providing details of the “current record of traffic situation and measures available to tackle the same”.
The court has also asked the CP to “suggest measures and steps which need to be taken so that traffic on roads of city of Pune can be better managed”. “Such review shall be conducted by calling for requisite data/statistics from respective departments especially the traffic police,” the bench said.
The CP has to file the affidavit within four weeks and the matter has been kept for hearing on March 27.
