Bhubaneswar, July 1: Students, especially members of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), will join police to manage traffic during rath yatra and Bahuda yatra in the city and on its outskirts.

To implement the programme, the police will over the next few days convene a meeting with college authorities.

"We are planning to rope in around 250 students for traffic management during Nabakalebar and writing to the college authorities for this purpose," said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

Sources in the police said the traffic wing had 240 personnel but there was requirement of at least 600 personnel to manage movement of vehicles in the city and those towards Puri for Nabakalebar.

"If you add the 60 traffic volunteers now working under the police commissionerate, the total number would go up to 300. However, we need manpower of 600, despite our plan to divert most of the vehicles coming from the Cuttack-side through the new bypass road," said a senior police official.

The police said traffic intersections such as Rasulgarh Square, Museum Square, Daya River Square, Ravi Talkies Square and the entire Cuttack road stretch would need proper traffic management during the festival.

The police said the students would be provided with basic traffic training on road discipline, safety and traffic regulation. Traffic regulation in the city and on its outskirts during Nabakalebar would be a major challenge for the police, as lakhs of people would be travelling to Puri from Bhubaneswar.

"Though we have been diverting heavy vehicles from Pitapalli Square, on the festival day, it would be difficult to segregate such vehicles, which would add to the problem," said a police official.

The slow progress of flyover construction at Rasulgarh Square would be a major challenge for traffic management during the festival. Though the National Highways Authority of India is hopeful that the flyover would be functional by July, the tardy construction process has raised doubts over the bridge becoming functional by the time of Nabakalebar.

Regional officer of the highways authority (Odisha) L.P. Padhy said a portion of the flyover would be made functional by the time of the festival.

"We have expedited the work to ensure that vehicles coming from the Bhubaneswar-side and heading for Cuttack would take the flyover - which would ease the traffic," said Padhy.