Traffic Police to enforce lane discipline

BANGALORE: After making fastening of seat belts a compulsory rule, traffic police will now take on commuters who do not pay heed to the lane system while driving. Police said in a city with more than 38 lakh registered vehicles, lane indiscipline has become one of the most widespread traffic woe causing trouble to both commuters and police.Confirming that a new drive will be introduced to curb lane indiscipline, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Dr M A Saleem, said, “Soon, a new drive will be launched to keep a check on improper lane discipline. Officials are chalking out rules and regulations.”On the other hand, citizens have a different take on this proposed new rule.“Where are specified lanes in the city to follow lane system or to inculcate lane discipline among drivers? Most of the lanes are not marked or they are faded to an extent, where we cannot see them to follow rules,” remarked Peter, a city-based commuter.However, traffic police seem to have foreseen this shortcoming and are in the process of marking lanes from April. Tenders have been finalised to mark the lanes and work will start in another couple of weeks, added Saleem. Though traffic expert and government advisor M N Sreehari opined it was a good initiative, he wasn’t very optimistic about its success in Bangalore.“It is a good drive but a very few roads have lanes in the city. Only 40 per cent of the roads can accommodate lane driving,” he said.He added most of the roads were too narrow to have three separate lanes, as the city has many crossroads or cannot support lanes.