Improved Traffic Management and Safety Initiatives Planned for Gurugram Commuters

Taking forward the efforts towards ease of traffic and safety on roads, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) officials held a meeting with top officers from Gurugram Police, Traffic Department and Municipal Corporations of Manesar and Gurugram to resolve critical issues of traffic management in the city. The CEO GMDA Sudhir Rajpal and the newly appointed Gurugram Police Commissioner Kala Ramchandran discussed various aspects of traffic control and citizen safety in the meeting held at the GMDA office.

Some of the significant areas highlighted in the discussion were matters of traffic decongestion plans, critical road signages, road repairs, traffic signal supervision, pedestrian footpaths and cycle tracks, drunk driving, drone surveillance, green belt beautification and parking regulations, among others. 

With a deep-rooted focus towards offering ease of traffic and road safety for commuters in Gurugram, GMDA Chief Sudhir Rajpal said, “We need to focus on hotspots and high accident-prone points and install requisite safety measures to ensure that incidence of accidents decreases. In conjunction with the police and traffic teams, a joint road safety audit will be done in 27 identified accident-prone spots, and remedial solutions will be undertaken. CCTV cameras would be installed for increased on-road surveillance. Our GIS division will also explore drone surveillance possibilities to monitor highways and similar heavy traffic routes. Additionally, service roads or lanes that need to be built to enable smooth traffic flow will also be initiated.”

For improvising road safety measures, signages, cat’s eyes, reflectors, speed breakers, rumble strips, bollards, spring posts will be set up. Installing speed monitoring cameras was also proposed to keep a check on high-speed vehicles and facilitate the issue of challans to violators.

There have also been continuous efforts undertaken to curb the menace of roadside parking and encroachment by wrongly parked vehicles in certain designated wards that often lead to heavy congestion on the road and resultant traffic jams in these areas.

Regarding the need for proper parking norms, Police Chief Kala Ramachandran underlined, “We need to encourage citizens to follow regulatory parking norms and park their vehicles at designated parking spots. Strict action against erratic parking is important, and we will work towards organised parking spaces for the benefit of Gurugram citizens. At the same time, we will also address the issue of frequent median cuts commonly seen on Gurugram roads that are another source of accidents and traffic chokes for commuters.”

Efforts are on the way made towards an enhanced traffic light system in Gurugram. The tender for 91 traffic signals in the city will be issued next week, wherein the completion period of this project will be six months. These smart signals using adaptive traffic control systems will help control traffic flow and ease congestion on the roads.

DCP Traffic Gurugram Ravinder Singh Tomar, present in the meeting, shared his views that building pedestrian and cycle tracks already underway by GMDA will also be beneficial for the safety of this segment of commuters. Identification of cycle and 4-wheeler accident-prone spots will also be made.

Senior officials from GMDA also put forth the need to improve street lights in the city in identified locations for enhanced surveillance and number plate recognition results. Furthermore, the concerned teams also discussed the digitalisation of images and data from crime records for face recognition purposes.

Photo digitalisation will also help in the face recognition of missing or running away from home, especially in cases where women are involved, expressed Kala Ramachandran.

“We will explore all necessary and possible routes and means to bring semblance and security on the roads for citizens of Gurugram. In this sphere, collective efforts are being made by all concerned government bodies and departments in various directions and aspects of traffic management,” added Sudhir Rajpal.