If the DCP (Traffic) does rounds in the city in civvies for two or three days, he will see where traffic management has gone wrong and what kind of traffic snarls occur near
traffic points with faulty lighting systems and without
traffic police personnel to fix the mess.
GUWAHATI: Speaking to the media in Guwahati on June 12, 2026, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Traffic) Jayanta Sarathi Borah claimed that Guwahati had adopted a fully technology-driven enforcement system. Is the claim of the DCP (traffic) in sync with the ground reality? Is the fully technology-driven enforcement system serving its very purpose?
A reality check shows that the claim of the DCP (Traffic) is quite out of sync with the ground realities. A photo of the traffic light system at the juncture of the VIP Road and the Panjabari Road at the Six Mile traffic point, clicked around 2 pm on June 17, 2026, corroborates the fact that the traffic point has been left unmanned even as the traffic light system there has been out of order almost since its installation. Even on June 18, the traffic point at Six Mile was seen unmanned. It is imperative on the part of the Guwahati traffic police not to leave the traffic point unmanned. As often as not, vehicles face traffic jams on either end of the traffic point at Six Mile.
The DCP also urged citizens to follow traffic rules responsibly, saying road safety is a shared responsibility. Yes, road safety is a shared responsibility. The moot question that arises here is, do all traffic managers do their duty responsibly to ensure road safety? The back-up photo of this news report is self-explanatory. The Guwahati traffic police left the traffic point at the juncture of Panjabari Road and VIP Road at Six Mile unmanned, although the technology-driven traffic light system installed there has been non-functional. This situation is not unique to June 17, 2026; it occurs frequently, and it occurred on June 18. As often as not, the traffic police leave this traffic point with a defunct traffic lighting system unmanned. Against such a backdrop of 'responsibility in traffic management', we feel that the traffic police fall short of playing their role in traffic management in Guwahati responsibly. Such citizens urge the traffic police to prioritise their responsibilities and ask the public to follow suit. They say that one should keep one's house in order before asking others to be orderly.
The DCP (traffic) also said at the press meet that the traffic police had sought assistance from IIT Guwahati to address traffic congestion at major junctions in the city. When traffic points with faulty traffic light systems remain unmanned, will any scientific suggestions from the reputed technological institution do anything worthwhile?
Beneath the flyovers in Guwahati, there are provisions for making U-turns by vehicles. It's a common practice of parking vehicles on wrong sides of the service roads, impeding the smooth flow of vehicles. The traffic police have not placed any signage at many such no-parking areas. The traffic police should use tyre jammers or wheel clamps to make the erring vehicles immovable, as is done in Shillong.
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