M T Shiva Kumar/The Hindu
Bangalore, May 12: Very soon, the staff of the Magadi Road traffic police station, who are controlling around three lakh vehicles every day, may find themselves on the streets. Their travails began one-and-a-half months ago when the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) demolished the station building for Namma Metro. Since then the station has been functioning from a shed.
The shed was put up by a private company, which had recently constructed the Magadi Road underpass. Now that the work is over, the company has decided to remove the roofing, tarpaulins and plywood sheets and move on.
The company had deposited Rs. 1 lakh with the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company for electricity supply to the shed and now it plans to seek a refund. Once those formalities are over, so-called Magadi Road Traffic Police Station faces a darker future as it will not even have power supply.
No toilets
When the Namma Metro project took shape in the city, a large number of buildings were demolished to make way for the city’s most ambitious infrastructure project. The traffic police station was then housed near the Leprosy Hospital on Magadi Road. “We were promised a new building by BMRCL. We were told to temporarily occupy the shed,” says a station official who did not want to be named.
The shed has no toilets, windows, ventilation system or coolers. The makeshift lodging has been damaged by last year’s torrential rains making hundreds of FIRs, charge sheets and other documents, telephones, computers and wireless systems vulnerable.
Low quality materials
As the shed was built for labourers, low quality materials have been used. The staff is forced to manage in the small, cramped space. Though the total staff strength is 56, they ensure that at a time only 15 personnel are around.
The shed station has also lacking parking space, drinking water and other infrastructure. The staff are using the toilets of the nearby commercials establishments.
“We are at the mercy of the construction company but the higher-ups are still ‘searching’ for a suitable place,” the official told The Hindu here on Monday.
The station’s jurisdiction spreads across several kilometres. It includes major roads like Rajkumar Road, Magadi Road, West of Chord Road, Magadi Road Link Road, J.J. Nagar Main Road and so on. Apart from these, it also takes care of around 200 big and small roads and a large number of junctions.
Another jurisdiction
Surprisingly, the land on which the station is located comes under the jurisdiction of Kamakshipalya police station. So should an accident occur right in front of this shed, the station staff have to contact the Kamakshipalya police station! This entails further red tape not just for the parties concerned but also for the policemen themselves.
When The Hindu contacted a senior police officer, he said: “It will take minimum one year to construct a new building for the station”.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Traffic Division) Prabhakar H. Rane said: “So far we have not decided where to locate the new building. We are trying to rent one.”