Dehradun, Uttarakhand: In a unique initiative to curb traffic violations in Dehradun, the authorities have come up with a new initiative under which if one violates the traffic rules, the driver then has to look after the traffic for a few hours. The new initiative gives the auto-rickshaw drivers violating rules two options- depositing a challan or actively participating in managing the city's traffic for a few hours.

Calling it a positive changed in a system where most people follow traffic rules to avoid being fined, the authorities said that it was first adopted as a pilot project. Applicable specifically on the auto drivers around the Dehradun’s Clock Tower, SP (Traffic) Sarvesh Pawar said that the scheme was introduced for the drivers who were unable to pay the traffic challans. 

Taking feedbacks from the auto drivers who had managed the traffic for hours in the Uttarakhand city, the initiative was started. This is joint initiative taken up by the Dehradun Traffic Police and RTO. 

“This initiative was started as a pilot project to control traffic violations by auto drivers around Dehradun’s Clock Tower. Drivers who were unable to pay challan, voluntarily used to look after traffic for a few hours. This brought a lot of positive changes in the city and after taking their feedback, this initiative has been started," said Dehradun SP (Traffic) Sarvesh Pawar. 

This is not the first time a unique initiative has been taken by the authorities to curb traffic violations. Recently, a traffic signal in Bengaluru has gained attention of the netizens. Earlier, authorities in the Shimla city of Himachal Pradesh have come up with the ‘One-minute traffic plan’ under which periodic cycle of one minute was set with a ratio of 40:20 or 30:30-which means vehicles would be halted for 40 seconds and released for 20 seconds every minute during rush, and released and halted for 30 seconds during normal times in order to release the vehicles and ease congestion.