Unskilled drivers also responsible for road mishaps: B K Upadhyay

In light of the spate of accidents on city's roads, dna's Radhika Ramaswamy quizzes joint commissioner of police (traffic) B K Upadhyay about the basic reasons for the accidents, some of the red-flag zones in the city for mishaps, and how the traffic department intends to deal with the situation at hand.

Do you believe that a lot of people who have a driving licence (which has become easier to get) are not fully skilled to drive the vehicle, which is in turn causing mishaps on roads?
It is largely true that we have a lot of unskilled drivers on the road and this is responsible for a number of mishaps. Our hands are tied here as RTOs are responsible for giving licences. For serious offences, we confiscate the licences. Apart from that, we educate the drivers on road safety. Besides, indiscipline is equivalent to lack of skill. For us, rash driving and speeding etc are also part of unskilled driving.

What are some of the vulnerable accident locations and dangerous vehicles in the city?
Places like Trombay, Vikhroli, Goregaon, Kandivli and Vakola are a few areas where accidents take place. This is mainly due to the movement of heavy vehicles in these stretches. Bikers are the most dangerous, followed by trucks and dumpers.

With more than 24 lakh vehicles in the city, how difficult has it become to man traffic under the present conditions?
There are several changes that need to be done including more parking spaces and technology in controlling traffic such as more CCTVs, breathalysers and speed guns. The e-challan system is also in the pipeline, although there is a delay. We need extra manpower. Currently we have 3,500 traffic personnel in the city and we require 1,600 more. To motivate our officials, we have activities to reward traffic cops through our traffic cop of the month programme. We also have meetings with them and discuss the on-the-job issues they are going through.

What will be the traffic department's focus areas this year?
While our drunk driving and speeding drives are ongoing, we will be focusing more on riders without helmets, refusal of taxi and autos to ply, and halting of vehicles before the stop line.