Bhubaneswar, Aug. 24: The traffic wing of the police is facing acute manpower crunch with around 250 personnel managing the city traffic.

Though it has roped in 146 student traffic volunteers, the number is still inadequate for traffic management for a city with more than 10 lakh vehicles.

According to the estimates of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, an organisation working under Union home ministry, the requirement of traffic personnel for a city like Bhubaneswar is at least around 600.

At present, around 250 traffic personnel, including constables, home guards and personnel of the Odisha Auxiliary Police Force (OAPF), are managing 58 traffic intersections across the city. The job of the student volunteers is to assist the traffic personnel.

"Around 30 home guards remain absent on any given day. The number of traffic posts are increasing day by day. But, we are being forced to manage traffic with out limited manpower," said a senior police officer.

Though the city has as many as 19 traffic intersections installed with traffic signal system, these are also manned by traffic personnel. "Besides managing traffic at posts, we are being deployed in VVIP duty and enforcement.

The traffic wing also takes part in traffic-related special drives, such as vehicle checking, helmet enforcement and illegal parking," said another traffic police officer.

Despite frequent drives of the traffic wing, traffic violations are on a rise in the city. As many as 1,07,231 traffic offenders were penalised in Bhubaneswar in 2015, while the figure rose to 1,26,578 in 2016. The traffic wing had also collected Rs 1.27 crore as penalty in 2016 from Bhubaneswar only.

"Only one traffic police station is operating in the city which makes it very difficult for us to enforce traffic rules. Usually, two persons are being deployed at traffic posts in each shift, which means around 90 per cent of the available manpower for traffic management only," said the traffic police officer.

When The Telegraph contacted twin cities police commissioner Y.B. Khurania, he said that they were trying to rope in more traffic personnel.

"We are also trying to upgrade the traffic wing of the police with modern equipment, such as body cameras and e-challan system for collection of penalties through debit and credit cards," said Khurania.