Bhubaneswar: Traffic congestion between Jayadev Vihar and Nandankanan took centre stage during the police-public interface at Infocity - the first such event since Satyajit Mohanty took over as police commissioner.

Most residents present at the event demanded deployment of traffic cops on the stretch to deal with chaos between 4pm and 8pm.

"A number of people drive on the wrong route and add to the woes. Congestion is one of the major problems," said a resident.

Several other issues such as recurrence of petty crimes and night patrolling were also discussed. Besides, theft of laptops and mobile phones of students have become a major contributor towards crime, which was raised during the meeting.

"The area has witnessed rapid urbanisation in the past decade and crime has also increased. The police should intensify night prattling to thwart burglaries," said another participant. Around 500 people took part in the event.

Infocity police station was set up in 2009 and covers an area of 28sqkm. Important locations such as KIIT University, Infosys and Sikharchandi hills fall under its jurisdiction.

The police said the station catered to more than 1.5 lakh people.

It had registered 130 cases in 2009, which went up to 190 in 2016. In reply, the commissioner assured that more traffic cops would be deployed.

"The second traffic police station at Chandrasekharpur will start operations shortly. We will continue to reach out to the public to find out specific problems and improve policing," he said.