Telangana sets up TG-TMARS bureau for traffic management, road and rail safety

The Telangana government has established TG-TMARS as a specialised police wing to bring traffic management, enforcement, highway patrolling and road crash investigation under one framework. The bureau will also oversee road and rail safety and statewide traffic enforcement.

Hyderabad: The State government has ordered the establishment of the Telangana Traffic Management, Road and Rail Safety Bureau (TG-TMARS) as a specialised wing of the State Police to bring traffic management, enforcement, highway patrolling and road crash investigation under a common framework.

The government issued G.O.Ms.No.135 on Thursday in this regard.

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The order said the existing Traffic Wings in commissionerates and districts lacked a common command for standards, technology, training, analytics and review.

Headquartered in Hyderabad with jurisdiction across Telangana, TG-TMARS will be headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Director General of Police or Inspector General of Police, designated as Director.

The Bureau will function under the administrative and disciplinary control of the DGP, while implementing decisions of the State Road Safety Council.

The new bureau will have two principal wings — Traffic and Road and Rail Safety. Its responsibilities will include statewide traffic management, electronic and physical enforcement, operation of traffic control rooms, highway patrolling, road crash investigation, enforcement analytics and prosecution monitoring.

It will also oversee policing related to the safety of travel on Metro Rail, high-speed rail and other rail transport in the State.

A key component will be the mandatory response to road crashes.

A Road Crash Response Officer will be designated in every police station, both Traffic and Law and Order, to respond round the clock, secure crash scenes, facilitate shifting of injured persons within the golden hour and immediately record crashes on the eDAR platform.

The Bureau will also operate a State Traffic Control Room and link unit-level control rooms and electronic enforcement devices for real-time monitoring. It will oversee the e-challan system and enforcement against offences such as drunken driving, helmet and seat-belt violations, wrong-side driving, lane violations, speeding and overloading.

For highways, dedicated patrol units will be deployed on National Highways, Expressways, the Outer Ring Road and notified State Highways.

Also, police stations having more than 50 km of National or State Highway within their jurisdiction will have a Highway Patrol Unit with a Head Constable, a Police Constable and a dedicated patrol vehicle. The units will be equipped with dashboard cameras, automatic number plate recognition and speed-detection devices.

The order also provides for a Traffic Management Fund, into which 40 per cent of police compounding fee and fine collections under the Motor Vehicles Act and Rules will be credited. The fund will be used for electronic enforcement equipment, patrol vehicles, traffic control rooms, technology, emergency road works, training and related road-safety measures.

In an organisational expansion, a post of Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) will be created in every Police Commissionerate and an Additional Superintendent of Police (Traffic) post in every district. The government has also directed the DGP to migrate 300 posts, along with personnel, from other police wings to TG-TMARS.

The existing Traffic Wings, Traffic Police Stations and e-challan operations will come under the Bureau’s oversight from the date of the order.

The Director of TG-TMARS has been tasked with issuing detailed Standing Orders and Standard Operating Procedures and reporting on the Bureau’s operationalisation to the State Road Safety Council within six months.