Shimla Police introduces 'One Minute Traffic Plan' to ease vehicular traffic in city

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], May 11 (ANI): The Police in Shimla have initiated a new traffic plan to ease the traffic congestion in the city.

The traffic flow in Shimla was causing acute congestion and taking between 60 to 90 minutes for commuters to reach their destinations. The new One Minute Traffic plan uses the base of Time, Number, and Space, and has holding and halting points removed from the city. The plan sets a periodical cycle of one minute, with a ratio of 40:20 and 20:40, to release vehicles and ease congestion.

Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, SP Shimla Police said that the traffic movement in the city has increased due to the summer season and tourist inflow. Around 6 to 7 thousand vehicles have entered the city, and over 16 to 17 thousand vehicles entered the city from a single barrier yesterday. To equalize the flow of vehicles from different directions, the One Minute Traffic plan has been implemented.

"We have taken the base of time, number and space. The basic problem of Shimla city is that we have a constraint of space, our roads have a limited capacity and the traffic flow and number is very high. The traffic flow was creating acute congestion in Shimla city, and it was taking 60 to 90 minutes time. We have developed One Minute traffic plan and have holding and halting points taken away from Shimla city and we have set and the periodical cycle of one minute and with a ratio of 40:20 and 20: 40 we are releasing vehicles and it is helping to decongestion in the city," said Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi.

He said that a large number of vehicles are entering the city as the traffic movement is increasing in the city as the tourist inflow is increasing for the summer season.

"We receive vehicles in the city from three to four directions; we have bottlenecks where we have tri-junction and that is our major problem. To equalize the flow of vehicles from these directions we have made this One Minute Traffic plan," he added.

He said that Local passengers, tourists, and citizens have been consulted, and stakeholders, including travel and tourism businesses, hotels, and transporters, have been consulted.

"99 per cent people are happy with this plan and those who have still problems we are open for suggestions and that 1 per cent will also be resolved," said SP.

The district Police chief said that this traffic plan has been named as the One Minute Traffic plan and first team members of Shimla police were trained and implemented.

"First I had to convince my officials and field staff and we are training them on a One Minute Traffic plan. We are monitoring the bottleneck and we have also submitted a proposal to the state police headquarters to increase manpower as we need additional manpower. If we get additional manpower we shall reduce their working hours and we have already rotated their shift rotations," said Gandhi.

He said that the Victory Tunnel of the city has been made as a baseline for a One Minute Traffic plan.

"We have taken the Victory tunnel as a baseline of the complete plan and we were able to manage it in two hours' time 3200 vehicles we were able to make through and we had a flow of 1500 vehicles which were in the waiting list. To manage these vehicles and to avoid the piling up of the queues for 6 to 7 kms and which resulted in 6 to 7 hours," he further added.

He said that further monitoring is being done and more CCTV will also be installed on entry points.

"We have a master control room and we are monitoring it on CCTV cameras. We provide an immediate solution. We have planned it in a collaborative way, we have divided the city in seven sectors and manpower will be increased. Keeping in mind the tourist inflow we have developed our plan which is aimed to ease and facilitate the people in the city," said SP.

The commuters are happy with the new traffic plan and want to continue it in the city.

"This new traffic plan has been able to save our time and traffic is smooth and now we are able to reach school duty right on time, this is good," said Ankush, a school cab driver.

Local residents are also in favor of the plan.

"This kind of plan for city was started earlier but that could not succeeded and for city it is not good but for the halt and stop at entry points is good that may succeed, you can see the results here," said Hari Nand, a local commuter.

The new traffic plan is saving time for local drivers and commuters, and many appreciate the changes it has brought.

"There is a difference of 10 to 15 minutes and it is saving our time. This is very good," said Deepak, a local taxi driver. (ANI)