“The traffic FM is one of my favorite stations. I have been listening to it since the last six months when I started working as a conductor,” said Parajuli, also a student at Saraswati Campus. “It tells about traffic conditions in the valley, accidents, breaking news as well as rallies and processions. It even advises us to choose certain routes in case of obstructions,” he added.
Among various programs played by the station that is on air between 5am to 8pm, Parajuli"s favorite is ´Sadak Sarokar´ in which key persons from several concerned departments interact about bettering the traffic system in the capital. “This is a weekly program. I hardly miss it. Another program I do not like to miss is the talk with the celebrity,” said Parajuli, adding that listening to higher officials talking about traffic system makes him feel that what he is doing is equally important.
Many drivers and conductors at the Old Buspark said that they are actually used to listening to it. According to Niranjan Dahal, a driver of Sanothimi route, the traffic program is a mixture of awareness program and entertainment. ´I like the songs played by the station,´ said Dahal.
According to DSP Pawan Kumar Giri, spokesperson at the metropolitan police traffic division, the station was established over a year ago with an aim to inform and make people aware about the traffic rules and system. “We want the people in the transportation field and the general public to internalize our messages. Without the people taking traffic rules seriously, it is not possible to improve the traffic system,” he said.
Giri is a regular speaker at one of the most popular programs played by the station every Sunday. In the program, he gets calls from listeners which mostly include drivers and conductors. “Drivers vent out their dissatisfaction against some traffic rules and I do my best to change their perception. We are open to criticism but our main concern is to better traffic rules,” he said.
Giri, who is also the founder of the station and was the station manager until three months ago, is so much elated by the high response from the listeners that he is pretty sure that the program could go commercial soon. “Till now, we have not played advertisements. But we are quite sure that we can make it a commercial station and we already have the permit to do so,” he said. “Many people listen to us now, but it is not sufficient. There are yet many out there who do not know about the program at all. Our aim is to reach out to maximum listeners.”
Around 40 traffic staffs, many from the media background, work in the FM. Giri informed that it needs good human resource to ensure the best performance. The most challenging work is the traffic updates done in every 15 minutes.
VOX POP -
Bhim Kumal, tempo driver
I do not listen to the station while driving Tempo. The noise of the tempo is not suitable for the tempo drivers. However, every morning I listen to it while traveling in a public bus as I stay away from where my tempo is parked at night. The programs are good. Sometimes they even play songs which I like very much. But the most important thing is that they keep us informed about new rules, traffic jams, if there are any and many more things.
Karna B Magar, taxi driver
I have been driving a taxi driver for more than eight years. However, I do not exactly know what traffic FM is. May be I have heard it a few times, but then I cannot be sure whether what I heard was the traffic FM. If the traffic has been giving us such information or updates, we should have known about it. They should have informed us about the availability of such program. I was never told by anyone. I often play my own collection of music. When I am bored of them, I switch to several FMs until I find one that is playing the music of my choice. But from now onwards, I"d be listening to the traffic FM. However, the traffic should also hear our voices.
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