4 months on, traffic cops’ alco booths have no takers

Four months after the Mumbai traffic police launched the Alco booth service inaugurated by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, not one of the devices have seen the interior of a pub.

The booths are aimed at party-goers and allows them to check the alcohol levels in their body so as to determine whether they are eligible to drive their vehicles back home. The device would display contact numbers for cab aggregators and independent drivers so that if a person’s blood alcohol levels were beyond the permissible limits, they could get in touch with the numbers and be safely dropped home.

However, since its launch in January, restaurants and pub owners have been in a tussle with the traffic police department about who will bear the cost of the booths. While the traffic police said the bars have to purchase the booths directly from the manufacturers, hoteliers said the traffic police should supply and install them.

While launching the booth, Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (traffic), had said that bars and restaurants had agreed to purchase this device. However, sources in the traffic police said that none of the bars wanted to spend money to buy it.

“The booth costs nearly Rs 50,000 and the bar owners would also have to keep a person to monitor it and sometimes even help the customer. This would mean extra work for them; hence they have been reluctant to install them,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

Bar owners said that even as they appreciated the idea behind the service, they would not be able to afford the booths. “We are also worried about the safety of our patrons, but spending so much money on one device is not feasible for us. Also, who will train our staff on how to use these devices ” asked the owner of a bar in South Mumbai.

The manager of a bar in the suburbs held the same view. He added that most of the bars had got to know about the devices through media reports. “We don’t even know what the device looks like and who the manufacturers are. We would appreciate it if the department in the first year provided the devices at a concessional rate,” he said.

Traffic cops said that while installing the booths was not mandatory, the bars and restaurants, which cater to an expensive clientele or atleast, have more than one outlet could easily install these. “They can do the same under their corporate social responsibility which is compulsory for them. Or they can chalk out a direct deal with the manufacturers. We have just kept the idea on the table, we don’t want to force it upon them,” the officer said.