Mangaluru: Traffic police are working towards ensuring a hassle-free traffic movement in the city by the beginning of the New Year. In order to achieve this, they have decided to identify areas where there is traffic chaos and install loudspeakers to alert drivers follow basic driving rules and thus ease out traffic.

Loudspeakers will also be installed in areas where parking issues are evident.

The initiative, mooted by police commissioner T R Suresh, is part of the broader public address system. Traffic policemen will make announcements through these loudspeakers directing the drivers concerned on how to go about with their vehicles. The police believe that the new system will bring the drivers back on tracks as nobody will like police pinpointing their car model or read out their vehicle numbers on loudspeakers.

Suresh told that the system will be in place in about two weeks in certain high priority areas in the heart of the city and will gradually be extended to other areas as well. DCP (Crime and Traffic) Uma Prashanth said the officials are in the process of chalking out modules to implement the plan better. Some of the few areas that witness heavy traffic in the city limits are Lalbagh, PVS, Ambedkar Circle, Bendoorwell, Kankanady, Nantoor, Panambur and Surathkal.

Though sponsors have been invited and a few organisations have already come forward to help the cause, Suresh said the police department will not wait for sponsorships but will begin the work using government funds. One of the main purposes of the system is to create a sense of awareness and learning among the drivers who even after clearing the tests and obtaining licences, fail to follow lane discipline and resort to haphazard parking, leading to traffic chaos, he said. Major cities in the country have this system in place already and have been operating successfully.