Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Sunday imposed new traffic regulations to decongest the highly busy Rajmahal square and Bapuji Nagar area in the Smart City.
According to a new traffic advisory communicated through a public notice from the Commissionerate Police, no vehicles will be allowed to park on the service road from Kalpana to Rajmahal Square, adjacent to Rajmahal over-bridge.
It should be noted that the entire stretch from Rajmahal square to Sishubhavan Square was made available for the four wheelers to park and the two wheelers were allowed to park in the area in front of Rabindra Medical Store and Jagannath Seva Sadan.
Entry of vehicles will only be allowed into sub main road-1 from Rajmahal to Sishubhavan through Bapuji Nagar market area. Similarly the sub main road-2 through the Bapuji Nagar market will only be allowed to exit to the Raj Mahal-Sishubhavan road.
Lane number-12 in the Bapuji Nagar market will be used as the entry point from sub main road-1 and the lane number-11 will be used as an exit point to the sub main road-2.
The Police Commissionerate has adopted the alternate parking rule in sub main road-1 and 2 of that area which has been quite successful in many other cities of the country including Pune and Bengaluru.
Parking will be allowed on the left flank of Sub main road-1 and 2 only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Similarly people can park their vehicles on the right flank of those roads on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The city police have planned to impose a fine of Rs 1000 on commuters found violating regulations by leaving their vehicles in no-parking areas after 16th February.
Speaking to OTV, Bhubaneswar Traffic DCP Sagarika Nath said, "Traffic regulation is a continuous process. If this drive becomes a success and people get benefit from it, we will definitely expand these rules to other areas too."
"We have deployed a Quick Response Team in the area to educate people about the new rules. The fines will be levied against the offenders after a fortnight," added Nath.
The new move by the Traffic police has sparked mixed reactions from the public. On one hand, some people have welcomed the rules while some traders and shopkeepers in the area were sceptical of the success of this rule.
A shop owner in the Bapuji Nagar said, "Unregulated parking was a big menace for the commuters. If a proper place has been earmarked for two-wheeler and four-wheeler parking then people can get in and out of the market quite easily."
However unimpressed with this new rule, another shop owner in the area said, "It remains to be seen what fruit it bears in the coming times."