Police have focused on smooth vehicular flow on the Mahatma Gandhi Setu but seem to have forgotten their long-announced plans to ease traffic in city roads.

"At present, our priority is Mahatma Gandhi Setu. The new traffic plan, which calls for lane driving, has been in place since a month and the results have been very positive. The traffic clogs in the bridge and along the roads leading to the bridge, the snarl has drastically come down. However, the police cannot take chances and decide to take it easy as one fault can ruin the whole system. Proper monitoring is being kept at the bridge all the time. The police have not forgotten the other traffic plans though," superintendent of police (traffic) P.K. Das said on Monday.

As many as three traffic plans, already announced, for the city are lying in a limbo with little or no action having been taken to initiate them as of yet.

No-tolerance zone

In March, the police had announced the old Hartali Mor as a zero-tolerance zone when it comes to any kind of traffic offences. The move started well with the police penalising errant vehicles and cops had said more similar zones would be created in the city soon.

The scenario, at present, however is not encouraging with the move losing steam. "The homeguard jawans were on strike for more than a month and that came as a major setback to manpower," a police officer said.

Traffic signal

In February, the police, in coordination with Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, installed signals at four locations - Dakbungalow roundabout, Income-Tax roundabout, Kotwali T-junction and Voltas roundabout.

The signals blinked for a few days but have been in shutdown mode for almost a month now.

SP Das had earlier said unless the control room for the signals was ready, they could not be made fully functional.

"Besides the control room, there are power issues related to the signals. The police had arranged temporary power source to run the signals. However, this is not a solution. Permanent power source for the operation of the signals needs to be arranged. Also, once the control room is ready, the signals will be made fully operational," another police officer said.

Multi-level parking

The police, around a month back, had decided to make the multi level parking facility at Buddha Smriti Park operational and encroachments along the 350m stretch near Buddha Marg would be cleared and turned into a one-way traffic which would allow the vehicles to park at the facility.

"We need the help from the Patna Municipal Corporation for clearing the road. At present, the auto-rickshaw drivers have completely captured the road and they have to be removed with co-operation from the municipal corporation," SP (traffic) Das said.