PESHAWAR: The traffic police have taken a number of measures to improve the flow of traffic and avoid fatal accidents on highways, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Traffic police Peshawar officials during duty on October 19, 2023. — X/@TrafficPeshawar
Assistant Inspector General of Traffic Police Dr Zahidullah Jan said more steps were under consideration to facilitate the flow of traffic and avoid road fatalities in the provincial capital and other districts.
The AIG said the traffic police had accelerated action against those not wearing helmets and seatbelts. He said the measures were aimed at ensuring the safety of the motorcyclists and motorists.
“Over 15,204 bikers were issued tickets in the last one month in Peshawar for not wearing helmets. The traffic officials have been directed to take measures to ensure safety of bikers and motorists,” said Dr Zahid, who is head of the Peshawar traffic police.
The CTO said that operations against encroachment, illegal parking, tinted glasses and unregistered bikes were underway. Around 55 people were held in the last few days for blocking roads through encroachment, he added.
The official said a number of measures had been planned and approved that would further improve the traffic flow on GT Road, University Road, Saddar Road, Warsak Road, Charsadda Road, Kohat Road, Dilazak Road, Bara Road as well as Ring Road.
The official said the traffic police had introduced short and long term plans to avoid traffic congestion on busy squares and roads in the provincial capital. “The people will notice significant changes in the coming days,” he remarked.
He added work was being done on the bottleneck points all over the provincial capital that created hurdles in smooth flow of traffic, especially during school and office time.
The AIG said meetings were held with the departments concerned regarding U-Turns on Ring Road and other roads that needed to be shifted at some distance to facilitate motorists and bikers and not to disconnect villages on both sides of the road.
At a number of places, the design and place of U-Turns need to be changed to facilitate villages on both sides and to avoid accidents, he said.
More fish-bellies at appropriate places on Ring Road and other major roads will avoid accidents on U-Turns. Also, the service roads on both sides of Ring Road will be connected to all the major roads so no biker or motorist takes the wrong lane or the one-way.
Dr Zahid said officers in all the districts had been directed to identify all the spots on major highways where more fatal accidents happened in the last one year so steps are taken immediately to avoid mishaps in future.
“Apart from proper deployment of sergeants and jawans, we are going to introduce a better traffic engineering system on all these points as well as major squares that connect two major routes,” said the CTO.
He added the performance of the traffic officers deployed in districts and in Peshawar would be monitored and those doing better would be rewarded and the ones not performing well would be replaced.
“Merit, transparency and excellence will be acknowledged and rewarded in the traffic police.
We are taking measures for improving working conditions of the staff on road and in offices and to reward them purely on merit,” said the official. He said that offices and headquarters of traffic police had been renovated and whitewashed so the visitors can have a good impression of the force.
“We are also educating people on roads and in seminars at educational institutions about the importance of wearing helmets and seatbelts as well as avoiding use of phone and lane violation during driving,” said the AIG. He said actions were also underway against underage drivers and over-speeding.
Source link: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1151093-official-enlists-measures-to-avoid-road-fatalities