A kiosk set up by the traffic police department at Rangatand Chowk in Dhanbad on Monday. Picture by Gautam Dey

Traffic policemen of Dhanbad are taking guard against the rains.

The Dhanbad police administration has come to the rescue of the men in uniform, who have to weather the weather — hot, cold or pouring — to perform their duty of manning vehicles. The department has decided to install covered traffic booths for them at important intersections of the district.

The kiosks — one has already been set up on Rangatand Chowk near Dhanbad railway station but is yet to become fully operational — will be equipped with all necessary facilities like electricity connection, seating arrangement, telephones, walkie-talkie and even surveillance cameras.

Traffic booths will also be set up near Bank More and Hatia More — the two busiest intersections in Dhanbad town. If the model is successful in Dhanbad, it will be replicated in Jharia and Katras.

“We have approached some banks like the State Bank of India and HDFC for bearing the installation costs of the booths because we are facing shortage of funds. Earlier also, we had installed traffic posts with the help of a vernacular daily,” said traffic deputy superintendent of police P.C. Jha.

On the need to install surveillance cameras in the booths, Jha said that it would help keep an eye on violators of traffic norms. “The men on duty will also be able to collect fines from violators at the spot as they can keep the registers and other documents in the booth. At present, fines are collected after taking the erring commuters or drivers to the nearest police station, which is a waste of time,” the DSP pointed out.

As for starting with Rangatand Chowk, Jha said it was a challenge to control flow of vehicles at this intersection. “The traffic congestion is aggravated by a drain near Gaya Bride, which overflows during monsoon and eats on road space. Moreover, with schools reopening last week and the timing of courts changing, it’s all the more difficult to man traffic at the chowk,” he said.

The DSP added that they had also conducted a survey of outdated school buses that often break down on roads, adding to traffic snarls. “We will soon ban them after sending notices to the authorities,” he said.