PESHAWAR, Jan 31: The traffic police have announced a new plan for regulating the traffic system in the provincial metropolis.

Speaking at a press conference at his office on Saturday SSP Traffic Nasir-ul-Mulk Bangash told reporters that public transport vehicles, especially the mini-buses and wagons would ply on 16 different routes and all the drivers would have to follow the rules strictly.

He said that the owners of unregistered auto-rickshaws had been warned to contact the concerned officials for registration within one week otherwise they would be impounded. He added there were 28,000 rickshaws in the city, which were the root cause of the traffic mess.

He said that the buses plying on different routes would have to install a specified number in shape of a sticker issued by the traffic police.

Mr Bangash said campaign would also be launched against the vehicles with tinted glasses, saying that transporters had been warned to follow the rules otherwise they would be arrested for violation of the traffic rules.

The SSP also said that peoples’ visits to the offices of clerical staff of the traffic police had been banned in order to discourage the culture of corruption, adding those seeking driving licenses had been advised to get these from the districts of their birth.

The duties of traffic police personnel, he said, would be changed on monthly basis, to discourage the corrupt practices, and all the illegal bus stands would be removed in the city after the lapse of notices, which had been issued to their managements.

About the penalties on violators, the SSP said that the traffic police had fined around 44,000 vehicles since the start of the current year and a fine of around Rs6.1 million had been collected.

The statistics issued by the police show that around 1,420 vehicles were fined for wrong parking, 2,298 for not having valid driving licenses, 4,250 for not having route permits, 4,339 for keeping music instruments, 1,773 for tinted glasses, 583 for violation of 113/115 motor vehicle ordinance.

Besides, 2,834 vehicles were fined for decorations, 1,792 for violation of lane discipline, 1,714 for speeding, 2,044 for violation of zebra-crossing, 912 for having bad lights, 266 for smoke-emission and 176 without motor vehicle examiner certificate.