Delhiites lack traffic sense, feels city's top cop YS Dadwal

Delhiites lack traffic sense and this leads to chaos on roads, feels the city's top cop YS Dadwal.

"Chaotic situation on Delhi roads are because of the mentality of the people. If everyone follows rules, there will be no chaos on roads," city police commissioner Dadwal said in an interview.

"Everybody wants to go a step ahead of the other and one should know that if you can do this, others also can do it to you," he said.

Asked whether he felt Delhiites lacked civic sense, he said, "You decide. See what is happening on the roads. I think you can make the right decision. Yes, people definitely lack a substantial degree of traffic sense."

"It's just that people should stick to basic rules, if you drive safely it will be good for others too," he said.

Another problem, he said, was that the capacity of the roads was not in sync with the development of the city. Delhi has a total of 65 lakh registered vehicles as of now.

He said the traffic police has taken a number of initiatives to ensure smooth traffic and this have yielded results. "The number of accidents have come down," he said.

When it was pointed out that there were frequent complaints about traffic signals not working, he said the situation has improved.

"We are going to have a much bigger system. We have floated a tender for installing new traffic signal system. We did not get a warm response because we wanted companies which have international experience. We don't want some one to come and practise on us," he said.

Asked whether there would be any restriction on movement of people during the Commonwealth Games, Dadwal said this is a free city and free country. "But we like to caution people. As a responsible citizen they should help us in maintaining traffic," he said.

There will be a dedicated lane for the Games and it can cause some traffic problems, Dadwal said adding there will be lot of traffic during the Games.

"People need to make slight adjustments related to their travel plans. We are not asking people to stay at homes but to follow traffic rules," he said.

"Detailed traffic management plan for city traffic and venue-specific circulation and parking plans have been developed. Last minute changes noticed during the construction and after it are being monitored and effective traffic solutions are being implemented," he said.