PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to launch traffic warden service to regulate vehicular traffic in the provincial metropolis, according to sources.

They said that they service would be extended to other big cities of the province in the next phase. The government would also create new vacancies of different categories for strengthening the existing setup of traffic police.

Sources said that police department demanded of the provincial government to increase the total strength of traffic police personnel. Of the 1989 personnel, the existing strength of Peshawar traffic police is 1320. The existing traffic personnel will be accommodated in the new service.

The government has also approved creating of 669 new posts of different nomenclatures along with providing equipment, transport, training and infrastructure to the force that will cost Rs539.635 million.

The new service will be launched in Peshawar, to be extended to other big cities of the province in second phase

The capital city of Peshawar has been facing traffic management issues of great magnitude for the last many years which has been compounded due to closure of several lanes owing to security reasons.

The studies, carried out by traffic police, reveal that the whole pressure of the traffic is on GT Road, Ring Road, Charsadda Road, Kohat Road and University Road. The City Circular Road also takes a heavy load.

The city has expanded in all directions and the mass influx from all over the province and Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) has also resulted in setting up of new satellite towns. With these demographic changes and growing urbanisation, the expectations of people for a better traffic management have also increased.

According to the officials of home and tribal affairs department, several meetings chaired by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak underlined the need for setting up a modern traffic management system in Peshawar in the first phase and extending it to other districts of the province subsequently.

The traffic warden service would mainly consist of qualified and better trained human resource, modern equipment and transport, traffic signals and traffic engineering inputs, particularly construction of underpasses, overhead bridges and flyovers and proper U-turns.

They said that in a committee consisting of home secretary, DIG headquarters and SSP traffic had carried out a survey about the overall traffic issues and also gave some suggestions in that regard. The recommendations put forward by the committee include construction of 14 underpasses from Chamkani Mor to Hayatabad, Karkhano Market, removal of a number of U-turns and construction of new U-turns. The cost estimate of the engineering component will be worked out by the concerned department.

Similarly, the city traffic policing system suffers from the shortage of qualified manpower, logistics and training. The committee stressed the need for revamping and replacing the existing enforcement system by introducing modern traffic warden system.

They said that the traffic warden service would facilitate free traffic flows on the city roads, educate and assist road users in a professional manner, improve road safety and ensure better service delivery.

According to SSP Traffic Wahid Mehmood, the traffic warden service was envisaged to be a specialised one, manned by educated professionals, who would optimise modern traffic management strategies for quality public service.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2014