Kolkata: School students who visited Kolkata Traffic Police headquarters at Lalbazar on Wednesday posed a few questions that stumped even senior officers. During their visit to the traffic control room on Road Safety Week, students from Sri Chaitanya Techno School, Shyambazar Vidyamandir High School, Scottish Church Collegiate School and Mahabir Institutelearnt about police responses to traffic violations, the nature of their work, and the use of traffic cameras in their daily operations.
Senior officers, led by Additional CP Subhankar Sinha Sarkar, faced questions about the "zero presence" of police during early morning hours, the tactics for identifying drunk drivers, and cop role in assisting students during waterlogging. At Park Street crossing, the South Traffic Guard organised direct on-ground training. Pankaj Modak, OC of Park Circus Traffic Guard, and Prasenjit Chatterjee of Vidyasagar Guard visited Pratt Memorial and St Teresa, where they highlighted the importance of wearing helmets and not cutting lanes.
Lalbazar officials said they invited schools and students to come up with "innovative ideas" to help solve one of Kolkata's biggest traffic problems: the chaos on the roads at the start and close of school every day. The chaos can largely be blamed on poor planning, claim officers. The city's best schools are all located within a small belt of central and south Kolkata, with most of these schools starting between 7.30 am and 8.30 am. There are several other pockets in the city where the same problem arises at different hours of the day, with the challenge restricted to a few zones.