Bhubaneswar: Police have decided to extend the student-traffic volunteer scheme to five more cities - Rourkela, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Balsore and Koraput.

Under the scheme, students will be roped in to assist traffic personnel in manning vehicles.

The police said the decision to extend the service to the five cities were taken after the scheme had yielded positive results in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. At present, more than 150 students are working under the scheme that was lunched in January last year.

The student volunteers have been rendering service from 9am to 12noon and from 5pm to 8pm to ensure their studies are not hampered.

The volunteers are paid Rs 100 for three hours of service. Some of them are deployed at various major traffic intersections such as Rasulgarh, Rupali Square and Jayadev Vihar Square in Bhubaneswar to assist traffic personnel.

The police said the volunteers would be provided with T-shirts with logos of the police and caps.

In May last year, two student traffic volunteers in Cuttack were felicitated by the police for handing over the cops around Rs 1 lakh in cash after finding it lying on a road in the city. The volunteers - Sujata Panda and Rashmita Behera, both 19 years old - had found the cash while on duty at Madhupatna Square in Cuttack.

The police said the volunteers would be imparted one week's basic training on the traffic norms and signs before being deployed for traffic control. "Each volunteer will perform their duty for six months. The tenure would be renewed every six months till they remain students. After completion of their service, they would be provided with certificates," said a police official.

The state had witnessed 10,855 road accidents in 2017 as compared to 10,532 in 2016. While 4,790 people had died in these accidents in 2017, the number of death was 4,463 in 2016. More than 11,000 people were injured in road accidents in 2017.