Kathmandu, August 19

Though traffic rule violations decreased to some extent in 2015/16 compared to the previous fiscal, statistics made public by the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division show that it still has a long way to go to maintain road discipline in the Kathmandu Valley.

The MTPD registered 569,809 traffic rule violations in 2014/15 compared to 548,470 in 2015/16, showing a fall of 3.71 per cent. The total instances of traffic rule violation stand at 11,18,279 in the two fiscals.

According to statistics, the Valley has witnessed a remarkable fall in reported cases of driving under the influence.

In 2014/15, traffic police recorded 36,500 cases of driving under the influence against 36,065 in the current fiscal, a decrease of 11 per cent.

Common forms of traffic rule violations are disregard for lane discipline and traffic signals, use of mobile phone while driving, parking vehicles in the no-parking zone, seat belt infraction, mechanical modification of bikes, overloading vehicles, overtaking from the left side of the road, violation of one-way traffic rule and reckless driving, among others.

Violation of lane discipline tops the chart of offences and bikers are mostly ignorant about traffic rules.

SP Lokendra Malla, MTPD spokesperson, said stiffer fine and increased awareness among the drivers coupled with proactive law enforcement seem to have acted as a deterrent to traffic rule violations. New penalty structure for breach of traffic rules had come into force across the country from May 15.

Rule violations have come down by more than 50 per cent since the hike in fine. Any person caught violating traffic rules is punished with a fine of minimum Rs 500 and maximum Rs 1,500. Earlier, the fine for traffic rule violation was Rs 25 to Rs 200.

A traffic police official claimed that it was rare to find a motorist or a biker, who had not been punished by the law enforcement agency for violating traffic rules in the Valley.

“We do not have exact data of offenders and their repeated offences, but all motorists and bikers must have been booked at least once in their lifetime for violating traffic rules,” he said.

A comparison between the vehicle registration data of Bagmati Zone where the Valley is located and statistics maintained by the traffic police corroborates the MTPD claim about offenders to a large extent.

While as many as 828,179 vehicles, both two-wheelers and four-wheelers, were registered in Bagmati zone until the fiscal 2015/16, the number of bikers and motorists facing police action has reached 11,18,279 in the last two fiscals alone.

The use of CCTVs and go-pro cameras to catch the offenders have also helped curb the violations, said SP Malla.