In a bid to ease traffic congestion and ensure smoother commuting, the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have taken a stern stance against companies responsible for civic works that are either delayed or abandoned midway. The BTP will issued notices to civic contractors and utility service providers, directing them to complete long-pending road works within a week’s time or face legal action .

Karthik Reddy, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, who reviewed the traffic situation soon after taking over, told the media that incomplete or prolonged civic works—ranging from road digging for drainage, cable laying, to utility repairs—have become a major cause of traffic snarls across key junctions and arterial roads in the city.

“We have issued notices to such companies which have taken up civic works after obtaining due permission from Traffic Department or any other civic agencies and not completed the work,“ Mr. Reddy told the media. These companies have been notified to complete the work within a week failing which legal action will be initiated against him, he reiterated . He further said that the Traffic Department would also recommend the civic agencies to blacklist such companies for their inordinate delays in completing the work and causing traffic problems in the city.

Despite repeated requests and reminders several contractors failed to restore the roads, leaving commuters to navigate through bottlenecks, dust, and uneven surfaces, which forced us to take this step, a police officer from the east division said .

The move has come as a relief to road users, especially with monsoon rains making the situation worse. The police have also urged civic agencies like BBMP and BWSSB to coordinate better and avoid overlapping work that further adds to delays.

With traffic density rising and road space shrinking due to civic works, the Bengaluru Traffic Police hope this action will prompt faster project execution and ultimately provide some breathing space to the city’s choked roads.

40 choke points

In addition to this, the department also identified 40 choke points in the city, a majority of them in the east division. One such example is a stretch between Silk Board Junction to K.R. Puram, which house several IT companies along the ring road.

The city has 1.2 crore vehicles registered for the 1.4 crore population where traffic management is a challenging task, a senior police officer said .

The traffic police are also focussing on haphazard parking of vehicles on roads which blocks the smooth movement of vehicles . The jurisdictional traffic police have been directed to take up the parking issue seriously and take necessary action.

The BBMP has agreed to provide 10 towing vehicles to the department along with drivers. The traffic police will enforce the traffic violations strictly and even BBMP can take up action under BBMP Act on towing vehicles and enforce road discipline, he added .