Mysore looks at ways to ease traffic

While metro has been ruled out, the Mysore police are focussing on dedicated bus lanes for managing the city's traffic.

The increasing number of vehicles of all makes and poor traffic awareness among the public is turning into a nightmare for the city's traffic police. To make matters worse, the infrastructure created by the civic authorities is inadequate to meet the growing challenges of parking and it's becoming a headache both to vehicle owners and the general public. Not a single project for multi-level parking has been taken up.

These and other issues have added to the woes of the city's traffic police who face their own challenges.

"Vehicle numbers in Mysore have risen to nearly 500,000. The biggest challenge before the authorities is regulation of traffic, disciplining the traffic and encouraging the use of public transport as against private vehicles."

"Another serious challenge is that of parking of vehicles, particularly street parking which has reduced the road width and has led to a rise in the number of traffic accidents," said Mysore Police Commissioner M A Saleem.

The answer to this is either multi-level parking or regulating parking through collection of parking fees on the roads or a combination of both, he stressed, inaugurating a one-day workshop on 'urban transport' here.

To reduce the volume of traffic, Saleem said, the city needs an efficient public transport which is convenient and affordable. "While Metro is ruled out for Mysore, at least we need to plan for dedicated bus lanes within the existing road network," he said.

The police chief also stressed the importance of infusing discipline amongst the general public, which, Saleem said will go long way in reducing accidents. "Merely collecting fines will not help. We have to find some deterrents to bring down indiscipline among vehicles users," he underlined.

Some of the problems in traffic management and the importance of the workshop were highlighted by SIUD former Director P Sivasali, presiding over the workshop.

Realising the importance of growth of Tier II cities in Karnataka and the challenges posed by the increasing traffic and inadequate public transportation, the State Institute for Urban Development (SIUD) of the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) had organised the workshop involving representatives of the Mysore City Municipal Corporation, KSRTC, Regional Transport, Mysore Urban Development Authority, Institution of Engineers, Mysore Traffic Police, Mysore Grahakara Parishath and students of Mysore School of Design.

The objectives of the workshop were to work out strategies and action plan to meet the challenges of traffic and transportation, particularly public transport in the light of the importance of tier II cities and Mysore in a focus, said Deputy Director of Town Planning Geetha and hoped it would help in better management of traffic issues.