NEW DELHI: Expect fewer snarls this monsoon as Delhi Traffic Police has set up a special task force to report on road blockages due to waterlogging and falling trees on a WhatsApp group. The blockage would be immediately reported to the road owning agency and vehicles on the stretch diverted accordingly.During a trial run of the task force, cops received over 80 calls of road blockage. Traffic police have also created a hotline to connect road owning agencies with the traffic control room. The task force is being coordinated from the traffic command room at west Delhi’s Todapur where a team of 15 is monitoring the traffic situation in real-time and ordering diversions on congested roads.Joint commissioner (traffic) Arun Kampani said that traffic inspectors from all 53 circles have been asked to keep a tab on blocked stretches during a squall. “The teams monitor the situation on a real-time basis a nd coordinate with Google Maps, personnel on the road and the road owning agency to clear the blockage,” he added.During the heavy rain last week, on-ground traffic inspectors were asked to look for available diversions on stretches blocked on arterial roads like Ring Road. It took less than 15 minutes to transform a near-standstill stretch into a slow moving one. Eventually, the bottleneck was cleared within half an hour.“The idea was to have a common command and control post to avoid confusion,” explained Kampani.Kampani added that the traffic status was streamed on Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook so that commuters could plan their route in advance. The control room began updating messaging boards within minutes of the rain, advising commuters heading to IGI and railway stations to avoid snarled stretches. Alternate routes were suggested, especially in places like Lajpat Nagar and Sarai Kale Khan.

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