Calcutta Police is going the Delhi way. To check the rising number of accidents in the early hours, city police have decided to introduce a night policing system on the roads, on the lines of the national capital.

“Absence of traffic sergeants and constables in the early hours is one of the reasons behind road mishaps. Hence, our decision to introduce night policing,” a senior IPS officer told Metro on Wednesday.

According to data available with the traffic police, nearly 40 per cent of the deaths on roads occur in the morning. The number has increased in the past few years.

“Things turn from bad to worse during winter. Fog-induced poor light frequently leads to fatal accidents,” said Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner (traffic).

Qamar Ahmed, joint commissioner (traffic), Delhi Police, told Metro that the night policing system was introduced on an experimental basis and the response was encouraging. “Two months ago, we had introduced the system in some of the busy areas of the city to monitor traffic round-the-clock. The response is quite good. It has helped us curb reckless and drunken driving,” he disclosed.

In Calcutta, Shamim said, the system would be introduced to monitor the early morning traffic, when children go to school.

“We will instal state-of-the-art software to monitor the traffic,” a senior officer said.

Plans are afoot to recruit more traffic constables and sergeants. The proposal is awaiting chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s nod, Shamim said.