A car takes a diversion on Gandhi Setu on Monday. Picture by Sachin

The time taken for implementing a decision to make Mahatma Gandhi Setu snarl-free is much longer than crossing the bridge in the rush hours.

Be it Monday morning or Friday evening — the traffic trauma in the city is far from over although commuters expected better management, especially after last week’s promise of smooth vehicular movement.

Four days after a high-level meeting was convened in a bid to end the traffic nightmare along the 5.575km bridge and special instructions were floated, the implementation part is still missing.

During the November 14 meeting, which had seen senior officials of the police and the district administration of Patna and Vaishali participating, some probable solutions were charted out which, they had claimed, would be rolled out after Muharram, observed on November 15.

Among the foremost instructions was to depute more forces on the bridge so that the police could manage the traffic situation and avoid overtaking.

“The additional forces have not been deployed until now. The process is being initiated and soon things will be coming into place. The main cause of the mess is the one-way traffic system because of the ongoing repairs. We hardly hope the deployment of extra forces would solve the situation because the construction will continue for long,” a police officer told The Telegraph.

The meeting had talked about 200 policemen on bridge duty — a stronger force than 65 being deployed by the Vaishali and Patna police at present.

“The additional men will be placed in some days as deputation of extra men requires some planning and time,” he added.

The situation on Monday morning was no better than last week.

The much-publicised “zero tolerance” attitude of the police on buses crowding the bridge’s entry and exit points proved futile as the public vehicles jammed the key locations.

“These buses can be mainly seen in the office hours and some of the constables deputed generally allow them to pick up people in return of bribe. There are people too who stop these buses forcibly. With the additional forces in place, the problem is expected to get solved,” another police officer, requesting anonymity, said.

The commuters were visibly angry yet hapless. “Gandhi Setu is one of the lifelines of the state. In four days, nothing has changed much. If the government was serious enough, the deputation process should have been already finished by now. We understand that the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras takes time but the deployment of more men can be done quite swiftly. May be yet another massive traffic jam will wake them up,” Ravi Bhushan, a commuter, said.

The police said four CCTV cameras would be installed along the bridge to keep an eye on errant vehicles.

“One camera, which is able to record the registration number of vehicles, has already been set up. Soon, at least three more similar cameras will be installed. Apart from the same, a number of mobile cameras will be used for the same purpose. Things are moving at a fast pace,” Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj said.