Mangalore: The children of the St. Theresa’s school had an interactive meeting with traffic police personnel at their school today. The interactive meeting came in the wake of the change of traffic system on the St. Agnes – Bendoor well road, which under the new system, had been transformed into a one way road for traffic moving from Kadri to Kankanadi. As expected there were teething problems, with a couple of accidents already having been reported and the police being bombarded with complaints of inconvenience and possible safety issues, by the residents and frequent users of the road like the students of  St. Theresa’s School.

At the meeting, the students got a chance to vent their ire,  and seek a resolution of their grievances. Ayushi, a student, suggested a a zebra crossing and a speed breaker near the school  to help the smooth crossing of the students. Another student said  that the buses, both private and KSRTC do not halt in front of the school. Due to this, students are required to walk till St Agnes College where the buses stop to ferry the commuters.

Addressing the massive gathering of students after listening patiently to the students’ grievances and suggestions, ACP (Traffic) Uday M. Nayak said that “The new traffic rule enforced on the route from Bendoor to Balmata circle is to check the vehicular density and ensure free flow of traffic on the road,” The ACP also responded positively to the suggestion regarding a zebra crossing and a speed breaker and said that  measures would be taken swiftly to troubleshoot the problem. As regards the plea for a bus stop, The ACP assured that he would talk to the bus operators about a stop near St Theresa School for the better convenience of the children. 

To the complaint  that due to the one-way traffic, commuters are forced to take a roundabout for moving to and fro and this consumes much time as against the earlier traffic regulation, ACP advised the students to adapt to the situation. “Every day 300 plus vehicles are being registered in the city resulting in additional traffic. The traffic has to be modified to deal with this. He expressed  the confidence that the department would consider the pleas on the one-way rule put-forth by the children and if needed the rule could be modified. As of now it was difficult for the department to bring in a new rule for the road. Unlike others, there are no parallel routes to control traffic in the city. This has led the traffic department to modify the rule with a one-way norm,” he said.