Maharashtra state highway police, which patrol and oversee road safety over 50,000 km of highways, is facing problems due to an inadequate quota of diesel for patrol vehicles.
According to the DNA, many of the patrol vehicles, which are old, and hence consume more fuel, the highway police have sought that quota of diesel be increased. At present, each of these vehicle gets 20 litres a day and the authorities have further demanded that it be increased to 30 litres. A senior police official told the leading daily, "We have requested the Director-General of Police (DGP) to increase the quota for each vehicle to 900 litres a month and this is expected to happen soon. Some of our vehicles are old and give a low average of around 8 to 10 km per litre. This affects the patrolling. Some authorised petrol pumps, where our vehicles can fill diesel, are far from the highways. This creates logistical problems as our patrol cars have to travel to these places which are located at a distance from their places of deployment."
Similarly, across Maharashtra, the highway police cover 17,350 km of national and over 35,000 km of state highways. However, they have just 63 police traffic aid posts with 63 vehicles. "An inadequate quota of diesel affects their patrolling. On the Pune side, our vehicles have to go to the rural police headquarters in Pune for refueling as there is an issue with the private petrol pump operator," the officer told the leading.
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