Cuttack, Oct. 20: Police on Tuesday clamped temporary traffic restrictions on all major roads in the city to streamline vehicular traffic during Durga Puja.

Being an old city, which is always cramped for space, the one-way traffic regulations come handy for traffic officials to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic and accommodate the Puja rush.

Senior officials said the entire city had been divided into eight sectors and four zones for better traffic management was top priority for Durga Puja.

Assistant commissioner of police (traffic) P.K. Dalai said that this time extra manpower had been roped in to ensure strict enforcement of the one-way traffic system.

Nearly 13 sections of police force including 65 officers, 22 havildars, 176 constables and 140 home guards have been engaged for better traffic and crowd management in the city.

Around 128 static traffic personnel will be deployed at specific points to clear the extra rush on the last two days of the festival, which draws revellers from other parts of the state as well.

Official sources said bulk of the city's traffic would be diverted on the 16-km Ring Road and subsequently diverted to major routes so that there was less chaos on the arterial roads, especially those near major Puja pandals.

Extra focus had been given on the deployment of traffic constables on major routes including at Choudhry Bazar, Ranihat, College Square, Chatra Bazar, Malgodown, Nayasarak, Chandni Chowk, Mangalabag, Mata Matha and Buxi Bazar. Traffic officials said that these routes would bear extra traffic rush and ensuring a free flow of traffic would be a challenging task owing to the convergence of vehicles from different sides.

The police have also appointed 888 special police officers (SPOs) this year. The SPOs have been chosen from various puja committees and given special power and duty in crowd management and traffic regulations and other basic activities near their respective pandals.

A special plan and traffic regulation will be in place for the entire city during the immersion ceremony on Saturday, official sources said.

"There is usually a concern among the residents owing to the extra flow of vehicles during Dussehra. But so far the cops have done a commendable job in ensuring that devotees do not have any problem in visiting pandals in different parts of the city on the first day of the festival today," said Akash Pradhan, a resident of Dolmundai.