KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 22
Traffic police have taken action against 4,314 drivers and riders on the basis of CCTV footage for violating traffic rules in Kathmandu valley in the fiscal 2022-23.
Senior Superintendent of Police Rajendra Prasad Bhatta at Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office said it had been effectively monitoring the vehicles plying the road through Closed-Circuit Television cameras in the valley. Traffic police send a penalty notice to the traffic rule violators via mobile phones on the basis of CCTV footage and their details collected from the transport management offices.
"We ask the traffic rule violators to produce themselves at our office and pay applicable fine," he said. Traffic Police are keeping a close watch on drivers to check whether or not they are following the traffic rules. Most of the cases were related to violation of traffic lane and driving on 'one way' roads. Any driver or rider caught violating traffic rules is slapped a fine between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500.
Nepal Police have a coverage of more than 1,000 CCTVs installed at around 300 locations in the valley. Lack of infrastructure, inadequate road network and traffic congestion during peak hours have also made traffic rule violation a norm in the valley, a traffic police official said Traffic cops armed with communication sets, GoPro cameras, surveillance vehicles and breathalysers have fanned out across the valley, with major focus on busy intersections to curb traffic rule violations.
Common forms of traffic rule violations are disregard for traffic signals, use of mobile phone while driving, parking vehicles in no-parking zones, seat belt infraction, mechanical modification of bikes, overloading vehicles, overtaking from wrong side of the road and violation of oneway traffic rule. On an average, 1,200 drivers and motorbike riders are caught violating traffic rules daily. Traffic police warned that drivers and bikers tend to breach rules in the absence of on-duty traffic police personnel in uniform.
An average of 900,000 vehicles ply the valley roads daily. Surveillance cameras have aided police to monitor suspicious activities, control crime, facilitate evidence-based criminal investigation and track down offenders. They have been acting as the third eye for law enforcement officers in areas where manual policing is not possible.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 23, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
