Jammu, October 16: The Jammu and Kashmir Police is said to have planned to utilize the services of drones to regulate traffic in the capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar besides the national highway.
The step if implemented fully is not only a good initiative but also a welcome step on the part of J&K police to go high tech in these digital days.
Drones till date have been evoking a different kind of response among the residents of Jammu and Kashmir as we have been hearing drones of India and Pakistan being used to spy on each other or the bombardments in Afghanistan by American drones but now things seem likely to change.
The usage of drones has no match at present as like advanced western countries we cannot have a fleet of helicopters on the beck and call of J&K traffic police to manage traffic or follow any fleeing militant but using low cost drones is not only viable but also effective than helicopters in this hilly and complex state.
Since drones are controlled remotely the continuous monitoring of traffic congestions in twin capital cities and national highway can be regulated from a control room and the traffic can be managed more effectively as those monitoring the traffic would have the advantage of having the whole perspective of traffic bottle necks and issue instructions accordingly.
At present traffic is either managed by the traffic cops on spot or by the people themselves who hardly know what has caused the traffic jam few yards away or in case of highway few kilometers away but with drones at hand and monitoring from the sky traffic managers will have more say and can treat the actual bottle neck instead of managing whole queues of the stranded vehicles.
The concept was disclosed by Additional Director General of Police, Armed, SM Sahai who is also the Director of Institution of Studies, Learning and Analysis (ISLA) a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) promoted by J&K Police.
Sahai said that traffic police have prepared a documentary using the drones which it intends to show during a seminar on ‘Traffic Management’ tomorrow.
So far so good but as we have seen in J&K many innovative schemes are just for the consumption of the media and seminars and later gather dust in the files of the government cupboards.
It is imperative that the traffic police takes the initiative to its logical end and brings some relief to the exhausted people who have been facing miserable times during traffic jams with absence of traffic cops to regulate the traffic.
It is also required that this should not become a VIP scheme to regulate traffic during the VIP movements only instead of managing the regular traffic in the twin cities particularly national highway.
It is hoped that traffic police goes high tech in real sense and competes with other western countries to manage traffic through sky with the help of drones and common man heaves a sigh of relief.
Sahai needs appreciation for this novel concept provided he executes the scheme as it is conceived.