The traffic police had tried a similar method last July, following massive protests against Blueline buses due the rising number of accidents. The campaign, though, was not carried out in a sustained and concentrated manner.

This time, senior traffic police officials said, these 90 officers, drawn from all units of Delhi Police, will travel on Blueline buses on their own, for the entire day. “Our aim is to reduce accidents by at least 50 per cent,” Joint Commissioner (Traffic)

S N Srivastava said. “Our analysis shows trucks and Blueline buses are the major offenders in most accidents. So we are concentrating on these two types of vehicles at present.”

Srivastava said the police officers would travel the entire stretch of the bus route. At the end of the journey they will identify themselves and hand over notice to the driver for violations made during the journey. “If a Blueline driver is driving rashly and dangerously then the officer in the bus will immediately inform the area traffic inspector; the bus would be impounded on the spot,” DCP (Traffic, South) Rupender Kumar said.

The traffic police have not fixed any timeframe for this drive. The results of the drive will be assessed at the end of every week and a decision will be taken accordingly — whether to continue the drive,” Srivastava said. Though, “we will sustain it for a longer time” this time around.

Last year, 88,678 buses were prosecuted for traffic violations and 2,170 Blueline drivers were arrested. As many as 9,029 notices were issued for suspension of Blueline bus permits and 5,157 permits were suspended.

Accident-prone
2006
376 accidents
118 fatal accidents