Deputy Commissioner of Police, Manoj Patil (traffic), said, “Traffic chaos has been a serious problem and to find solutions, we have been conducting meetings. We observed that most traffic-related problems are local in nature and need a common platform to be addressed. This (mail id) is an initiative to generate a dialogue between citizens and the traffic police.”

The initiative got cracking on Tuesday. The department has appointed two administrators and a police inspector to deal with the mails. “Another reason for the initiative is to welcome ideas and suggestions. The advantage of an email id is that the dialogue can be descriptive. For instance, only verbal descriptions can be conveyed on a telephone. But to an email, one can attach maps and photographs, thus giving a clearer picture,” said Patil.

“In the backdrop of increasing terror threats, the email can avoid the anonymity of the sender, unlike a telephone caller.”

Although he did not comment on the urgency with which the mails would be dealt with, Patil said, “Most citizens do not know basic traffic rules. For instance, not many know that waiting in the car by the roadside when the driver has got down for some work is still a violation of the 'no parking' rule. Most of them wrongly think that the traffic police control the meters on auto-rickshaws. We want to use the mail id to clear doubts and send the right information.”

Welcoming the initiative, Vinay Kalra, a citizen said, “It is definitely a good initiative considering that phone lines in the police departments are either busy or do not elicit any response. With an email, we can be sure we've done our bit as far as responsibility is concerned.”

Experts in the field have welcomed the development. Milind Mehendale, a volunteer of Save Pune Traffic Movement, an organisation working in tandem with the traffic department for solving traffic problems, said,