Two of the main roads that connect the airport with the rest of the city have a number of slow-moving vehicles plying through them.
On any given day, rickshaws, battery-powered rickshaws (popularly known as totos), bicycles and vans plying along VIP Road and the Major Arterial Road (MAR), which cuts through New Town, are hard to miss.
Police said many of the slow-moving vehicles flout traffic rules — they do not stop at the signal and often move in the wrong direction.
Both thoroughfares have witnessed a number of accidents involving slow-moving vehicles.
In order to ensure that such vehicles stay off the thoroughfares, the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate has started a traffic safety awareness drive.
Traffic police personnel, including senior officers, are visiting all major rickshaw and toto stands along VIP Road and asking the operators to stay off the artery and use bylanes.
At the Baguiati crossing — one of the busiest intersections on VIP Road — the cops are stopping cyclists and advising them to stick to lanes.
A tricycle van runs on VIP road at Kaikhali area on Sunday, February 25, 2024
Picture by: Sanat Kr. Sinha“If they need to move through the main road, we are advising them to use the service lanes of the thoroughfare and keep to the left of the lanes. We have also told them not to ride in the opposite direction of the traffic flow,” said a senior officer in the traffic wing of the Bidhannagar commissionerate.
The police have also put retro-reflective tapes, which glow when the light from a vehicle falls on them, on rickshaws and bicycles.
At night, when visibility goes down, it becomes difficult for drivers and two-wheeler-riders to spot bicycles and rickshaws from a distance because they lack indicators or working tail lamps.
Many of the slow-moving vehicles, particularly the older ones, don’t even have any reflective surface that glows when lights from a vehicle fall on them.
On Sunday, this newspaper spotted a series of traffic rule violations by rickshaws, totos and cyclists on VIP Road.
At the Baguiati crossing, for instance, a battery-powered three-wheeler was seen moving through the middle of the road. At the Kaikhali intersection, another such three-wheeler was moving in the opposite direction of the traffic.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said the awareness drives will continue for a few weeks, after which the violators will be prosecuted.
“The drive is under way on VIP Road and will soon be launched on New Town’s Major Arterial Road,” the officer said.
