Bengaluru: Parents to volunteer as traffic wardens to manage traffic congestion around schools

Schools in Bengaluru would soon initiate classes among students on transport and civic sense in order to raise awareness. Additionally, parents would also volunteer as traffic volunteers around the premises of the school in order to manage the congestion. 

A meeting of stakeholders to consider the High Court's suggestion of revising school timings that primarily included private schools, traffic police and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) have decided against the suggestion and would be conveying the same to the High Court. “All the stakeholders unanimously dismissed the idea of revising the school timings. Instead the traffic police department, private school management authorities and other stakeholders have decided to decongest traffic near schools by adopting different measures including use of public transport and identifying traffic hotspots and clearing traffic near schools. The list of suggestions will be filed before the high court in the coming days,” Ritesh Kumar Singh, principal secretary of the school education department stated. 

The police have identified five hotspots where private vehicles are leading to traffic congestion. These are Hebbal, Sarjapur, Adugodi, Silk Board and the central business district. “Parents of children taking admission in schools in the central business district have to give an undertaking that they will use either public transport or school buses. Interstate vehicles coming to the city during the peak hours need to be regulated,” D Shashi Kumar, secretary of the Association of Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka stated.