Metroscape

July 26, 1999

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Delhi Underbelly

Delhi's motorists, infamous for their lack of patience and poise on the roads, are finally getting their due. The three-week-old police drive to enforce discipline at key crossings -- called Zero Tolerance Zones -- is forcing people to stay in their lanes, not slip past the stop sign, get off the celluar phone while driving and do things even children are aware of but adults never seem to practise. Get an inch out of place in these areas -- Dhaula Kuan, AIIMS, Nehru Place, Ashram and Connaught Place -- and you're either disciplined or fined, or both. Says Kanwaljeet Deol, additional commissioner in charge of the drive: "This is to make these corridors faster, smoother and more relaxing for motorists. It's helping."

About time. Till the middle of last week, traffic cops filled out over 3,300 "challans" or complaints against offenders in the five zones alone. Going by the norm, it should exceed the city's daily average of 3,862 for 1998. Deol claims the push is already having an effect with dangerous manoeuvres on the decline. And the police claims it's serious about driving home the message this time. Before the move kicked off, traffic policemen were shown extensive video clips of the kind of traffic snarls and problems specific to each zone. At Connaught Place, for instance, the main problem was not so much as unruly driving as unauthorised parking on the sides. Ditto with the railway station.

How long will it last? In the past any such drive lost steam and traffic indiscipline promptly returned. Deol isn't putting a time to it. It will help: it isn't easy to quantify eternity.

-Sayantan Chakravarty

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