The increasing number of vehicles in the country and availability of low cost cars (coupled with higher disposable incomes) is making the traffic scenes in the country a serious issue. Also, car-pooling system is not very common amongst Indians yet. Some are still hesitant while some others still unaware.
The Delhi police has launched an SMS service to curb the traffic problem which people face on a daily basis. Now you can get information about the city’s traffic situation like congestion points, rallies, political and religious processions and diversion updates on your mobile phone as Delhi Traffic Police has launched free SMS service to help people plan their travel in the city.
The Delhi traffic police’s SMS alert service can be subscribed to by sending an SMS to 9811452220. To unsubscribe, one has to send a SMS to the same number.
The Delhi Traffic police already has highly successful Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp profiles. “The Prime Minister of India, in his address to DGsP/IGsP of states, had called for introduction of SMART policing.
The Traffic SMS Alert service is yet another initiative by the Delhi Traffic Police in this direction in which the registered users will get alerts via SMS regarding traffic situation like congestion points, water logging, rallies, political/religious processions, Dharnas/Strikes, traffic restrictions/directions, accidents/breakdown of vehicles etc,” said the press statement issued by the Delhi traffic police. This service was run on a private basis by a company back in 2012, so this is a long term taken to execute it.
The time consumed in travelling in major cities is making life difficult for the working class, the people who slog round the clock at work, and in traffic pre and post work in peak hours. Alerts to diverge roots in advance would be considered to be a God blessing in such times. Previously, radio stations ran such alerts, and though they still do, they aren’t very efficient and do not follow a certain protocol. Coming from a police force, this service would be more credible and efficient. Moreover, SMS is a very convenient way of delivering information, not everyone would listen to radio, but a large populous carry phones.
The press release elaborating further stated that this is being launched in association with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology who have provided bulk SMS service free of cost to the Delhi Police for this purpose, initially for a period of one year, under the Mobile Seva initiative of the government.
It will be interesting to watch out how it works post the launch, and if other cities too take some lesson from the same.
