City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh categorically said that traffic police personnel flagging down vehicles for document check was illegal and action would be taken against any personnel doing it. He was speaking at #THTalksBengaluru on Monday.
“I have given clear instructions that we should not be flagging down vehicles to check for documents. No one should be troubled over documents. We are not here to bother about documents and increasing our fine collection. We are here to ensure smooth movement of vehicles on the roads, especially during morning and evening peak hours. I will instruct the Joint Commissioner (Traffic) to take action against any officer flagging down vehicles for document checks,” he said.
Towing to be back
Mr. Singh said towing would be back in the city albeit in a different mechanism.
“The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will provide us with towing vehicles, which are being produced now. We will focus mainly on high density corridors and not deploy them across the city,” he said.
Meanwhile, the city police have deployed more policemen on bikes (cobra beat) on these high density corridors to ensure there is no parking of vehicles blocking traffic, especially during the peak hours.
Shifting bus stops
Mr. Singh said the traffic police had conducted a study and flagged over a 100 bus stops that are unscientifically located either in narrow stretches of the roads, near junctions, signals, or flyovers. “We have written to the GBA asking them to shift it either forward or backwards to ensure they do not block traffic. For instance, on Airport Road we now have a bus stop at a stretch where the highway is the narrowest, adding to congestion. We will get such bus stops shifted,” he said.
Responding to a question on penalising the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses, Mr. Singh said the traffic police share the list of violations and buses involved with the Managing Director, BMTC regularly.
Speaking on traffic police seen filling potholes, Mr. Singh said that such instances had, of late, come down drastically.
“With the formation of the GBA and five city corporations, coordination between traffic police and civic agencies has improved. Now, the DCPs directly coordinate with the respective corporation commissioners, which was not the case earlier. The BBMP commissioner was in charge of the whole city and coordination was tough. Now it is decentralised. At the city level as well, all the agency chiefs, including myself, are huddled in a WhatsApp group which has even the Chief Secretary, where issues are regularly flagged and addressed,” he said.
Published – November 10, 2025 09:49 pm IST
