Use penalty money to improve traffic management: Gujarat High Court to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

Use the funds collected as penalty for violation of traffic rules to improve management of traffic, Gujarat High Court told the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Thursday. The court also asked the civic body to pay more attention to the problems faced by citizens. The observations were made during the hearing of a petition filed about the poor condition of roads.

"The issues are so obvious that even the court can see them clearly. Why these go out of your sight?" the court told the AMC. The bench also asked the civic body to identify bottlenecks that affect traffic movement in the city. The court suggested that the funds collected from violators of traffic rule should be used to improve traffic management.

The AMC also filed a detailed reply about their plans and actions to improve the traffic condition in the city.

The civic body said that it had formed a Unified Urban Mobility Authority in the city to chalk out a road map to decongest traffic. The AMC has also undertaken a study of over 50 traffic junctions that often witnesses congestion. The AMC brought to the court's notice that it has set up 452 countdown timers at different traffic junctions. They said that a mobile application will be launched to share real-time information about parking spaces, both public and private. AMC sources said they had identified 10 parking spots for the app, of which two were run by the AMC (at Kankaria and Navrangpura) and the rest were private spaces, including those at malls and multiplexes.