What do you do in the police station?
You work along with cops and regulate traffic in junctions?
Do you roam around the city searching for jams?
These are a few very common questions I have to answer off late after I took up the job of a traffic reporter. So I finally decided to write about my work. I would write about my experiences some other time. It has a few hilarious things to it….
So then, Nithin Pawar, Traffic Reporter with FM-94.3 Radio One. Yes the guy giving you the bad news about the traffic jams is me. But I do try and make the news not so bad by trying to give the listeners alternate routes to try and avoid the congestions. I also give the reason for the congestion if any.
The day begins at around 7am (I work in 2 shifts, 7am to 11am and evening 5pm to 9pm) when I enter Traffic Management Center (TMC) gate and tackle Rambo (one of the dogs in the TMC campus, dunno wat his actual name is)…he does not like the sound of my bike I guess. Walking straight into my cabin, yes I do have a separate place to sit, the “Traffic Information Dissemination Cell” in adjacent cabins to my left are the four zonal control room cops, front of me is a huge hall with lot of huge flat screen TVs and many work stations, behind me is the cabin of ACP Traffic and to my right is a wall with a huge Bangalore map on it. So tats my co-ordinates of work. Oh I forgot to mention….all the partitions are of glass, so no sound but clear vision of traffic scenes.
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| One of the monitoring screens |
TMC has approx 200 cameras (not sure of exact number) installed in various major junctions of Bangalore. All of these are managed by cops who view this and check for traffic violators.
I keep patrolling (cop terms already… :P) amongst these people and collect news if there is any congestions also interact with the control room cops regularly and collect the news about the scenes of Bangalore regarding accidents, vehicle breakdown, tree fall, waterlogging, processions, protest….evrything that affects the traffic movement. Only thing I do not report is the VIP movements(security issues is the primary reason) reason being that it is momentary and does not last long, by the time I report the junction would be free.
Selecting the worst 2 or 3 congestion reports at that time, I compose the traffic update at the given time and inform the MJ/RJ in the station, within about 3 or 4 minutes the update is aired(practically real time). I do try real hard to find out the congestions. But at times there the cops are so busy that I miss out a few incidents.
In come the friendly networks…. Our FB page, twitter feeds and phones, and the good samsrtians who take the pain of updating me if they are struck in any jams. Yes I have to mention, auto drivers and ambulance services do call in also… I do try and tell the control room cops to help clear the traffic to enable ambulance movements…and YES they do help clearing the traffic
So that is pretty much of what I do….oh I almost forgot, you can also help us by being a part of the friendly network, all u need to do is tell us where the jam is and if possible the reason for it. It would help our fellow Bangaloreans save time by taking alternate routes.
You can reach us in the following ways
FaceBook: facebook.com/Bangaloretraffic
Twitter: twitter.com/bangalortraffic
I would be writing about my experiences with the cops and various situations in my following posts. Not necessary to tell, all comments are most welcome… J
Drive safe, keep smiling….
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