New Zealand-trained highway patrolmen to be introduced by UP

UP government has sought Rs 250 crore as financial aid from the World Bank to form a separate unit for highway patrols

Uttar Pradesh government is going to introduce the country's first highway patrol on NH-2 and NH-25 for which the personnel will be trained by New Zealand Police and the uniform will be designed by fashion designers.

With financial aid to the tune of Rs 250 crore from World Bank, a separate unit - Uttar Pradesh Highway Patrol (UPHP) - will be raised whose jurisdiction will be limited to the highways it patrols.

The unit, which will receive separate branding, will not investigate cases and its role will be limited to ensuring proactive enforcement of traffic laws and quick response to accidents.

"We would soon be implementing it on a stretch of 750 km on NH-2, which enters UP from western part of Mathura and exits near Balia and passes through 13 districts. We are going to build a command centre at every 40 km.

"Four to five cars and two to three bikes will patrol this stretch round-the-clock in three shifts of eight hours each," Uttar Pradesh ADG (Traffic) Anil Agrawal told PTI.

The command centres will not be like police stations and will only work as coordination centres between the patrolling parties. These centres will be connected to one central command room.

Around 200 especially designed cars and 150 bikes of 350cc engine will be procured for the force. These vehicles will be installed with GPS and other modern communication devices. The cars will have an ambulance-like space for transporting injured persons in case of an accident and will also contain life-saving equipment.

"All the work of the unit will be paperless and we would be providing our men with hand-held devices like tablets for issuing challan.

"Even the administrative work will be paperless. Around 500 to 600 personnel will be absorbed on deputation for the unit for a period of three years following which they will have to compulsorily go back.

"We will send a bunch of officers for training to New Zealand which would then formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the unit," said Agrawal.

According to Rajesh Rohtagi, an official with World Bank, UPHP is a component of a larger project named Uttar Pradesh Core Road Network Development Project, which would cost around Rs 3,500 crore. Seventy per cent of the finances for the project are being provided in the form of a loan returnable in 15-20 years.

"We are going to pump in Rs 250 crore for UPHP over the next six years, which will be used for infrastructure, capacity building, equipment, etc.

"There will be a complete branding exercise to project the unit's image, including on social and traditional media.

They will be very different from the regular police and, for this, we are getting their uniform designed by professional designers," Rohtagi said.

The exterior of the vehicles too, will have a unique design. There will be two personnel in each car and all the members of the force will be given compulsory driving training. The project will be initially implemented on NH-2 and NH-25 and can be applied to other routes in the future, he said.