Military Police to assist police to control traffic
With the increase in the number of vehicles on the road causing heavy traffic congestion in Colombo city, especially during the peak hours, the Military Police personnel will be deployed from today at the main entry and exit points in Colombo to assist the Police in order to ease traffic congestion in the city, Army Commander Shavendra Silva said.
Lt.gen Silva, who is also the acting Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) said that on the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Army in consultation with the Police has decided to deploy military police personnel on the road to assist the traffic police.
“President Rajapaksa’s move to ease the traffic congestion in the city, and he has directed us to assist the police to tackle the situation. So from today onwards the Military Police with the traffic Police will jointly carry out traffic duties especially during the peak hours at the main entry and exit points in the city,” the Army Chief said.
He also said that a large number of people including schoolchildren get late to reach their respective destinations due to the continuous traffic congestions in the city. “Road traffic congestion reduces productivity levels of workers held up in traffic and all of that wasted fuel, among other factors,” the army chief said.
The Army Commander also highlighted that a considerable number of military vehicles were on the road during the peak hours. “So it is our duty to make sure to have a situation for the smooth traffic flow for the public,” the army chief added.
On February 14, in a statement the Presidential Secretariat said that the President also instructed the officials of Ministry of Roads and Highways to find immediate solutions to ease the traffic congestion in the morning on Galle Road, Kaduwela, High Level Road and Piliyandala roads towards Colombo.
(Source: Daily Mirror – By Sunil Jayasiri)
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speed limit boards should be displayed on road sides and it should be variable according to the business of the roads without having the same limit for miles and miles
Traffic officers should nab the drivers who violate the speed limit rules. Best thing is to order these speed merchants to park the vehicles on the side of the road for half an hour and release.
IF drivers are made to strictly follow speed limits ,and prohibit overtaking on the left, there will be no congestion like in other countries
Very happy
Utter waste of time of the officers to use speed guns as mentioned in 1st para of the article where it says” in heavy congested areas”. Saying this because I have seen officers time passing in those areas. Those officers could be placed in locations where there are free roads or when it is free not when congested and still stop a person saying ”’ ah mahaththaya speed eka wadi ne”
Even if having officers to control traffic between signals is fine. But, I don’t get the point of having a traffic signal and switching it off. For example in Sharjah, U.A.E the roads are much more congested and still, not even one single police officer could be seen on the road to control the traffic. Yet, people pass the signal on time and stop duly and other sides get equal time to move.
Another stupidity that happens in Sri Lanka is when one side of the road traffic is to be gone at a time. The people on the same side to turn left or right have to wait for much longer or for another signal light to light up. THAT IS AGAIN WHY TRAFFIC IS CREATED.
Initially, if the Sri Lankan roads were designed with Free exits at signals for left turns and the people waiting at a signal should be forward movers and right turners like in other countries still the traffic would be moving instead of congesting.
My other thought about having built new signals and having police is a waste of money. (Simply waste of materials to build it, waste of electricity, waste of the money spent to built and police officers are assigned to those places WHY??)