Traffic policing was almost fun in sixties

KATHMANDU, Feb 28: Narendra Raj Sharma, who started his police career as a junior traffic officer in Kathmandu´s streets in 1963, never imagined that vehicle population in Kathmandu would reach this high and traffic jams turn into an almost regular affair.

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Forty-seven years ago, being posted as traffic personnel in Kathmandu meant almost no work. The biggest concern, perhaps, was how to kill time.

“I still remember days when hardly one motorcar would pass by in half an hour at road points like Keshar Library, Jamal and Sundhara,” recalls Sharma. “Motorists would stop near traffic personnel on duty and also find time to inquire about us.”

There were only a few two-wheelers in the streets and owning a Mercedes Benz then was something few could afford. The motorists, who mostly belonged to the higher echelons of society including royalty and members of the Rana family, would even pass comments if the uniforms traffic police wore were ironed properly and had a crease on them.

Sharma was doing his Bachelor´s level studies at Durbar High School (attending night classes) when a vacancy for police officers was published in the state-owned Gorkhapatra daily in 1959. Since the number of educated persons was few, he was selected and sent to Delhi via Patna for police officer training.

Later in 1962, he also went to Calcutta for a traffic police course. There he saw automatic traffic light systems and brought one of them to Nepal. Later, Balaju Industrial Estate was asked to develop a similar system and install the lights at various traffic intersections.

But operating the locally developed traffic lights brought no relief to traffic police as the equipment needed to be operated manually. A small house was built in the middle of each of four major intersections including Keshar Mahal and Sundahara, and traffic lights of various colors installed on top of them. There was even room for traffic personnel serving almost round the clock to sleep.

The houses had four mirrors to check if vehicles were coming from any of the four directions. Interestingly, the traffic personnel would pull a lever for the green signal if they saw any vehicle coming and once it passed by they would switch back to normal light. “The houses were later dismantled amidst complaints that they hindered the smooth flow of traffic,” he said.

In the early sixties Kathmandu was steadily growing into a hub for foreigners as various countries started opening diplomatic missions here. “I suppose, the traffic lights were brought in to give an impression that Nepal was gradually modernizing,” said Sharma, who retired in 1993 as a Senior Superintendent of Police. “Otherwise, there was no need for such manually operated traffic lights as the number of vehicles was not yet high.”

Sharma still remembers vividly an indicent in which he had to furnish clarifications to then Secretary at the Transport Ministry Khadak Bahadur Singh. Sharma, who was then chief of the Sadar Traffic Police Company, was asked why he had to depute traffic personnel even where electric traffic lights were in place.

“I had to clarify that the lights were manually operated and traffic personnel needed to be stationed there round the clock,” added Sharma.

Problems existed even after the manually-operated traffic lights were installed. There was no white paint available in the local market to demarcate zebra crossings. “We had put in stainless steel plates instead,” he recalled. “But the plates would keep springing loose due to the movement of vehicles. We had to keep ourselves busy fixing them time and again.”

Since most motor vehicle owners were from the cream of society with little knowledge about traffic rules, traffic personnel would face their ire time and again, especially when they stopped the vehicles to ensure security for VIPs and VVIPs. But they did abide by the traffic rules.

These days, traffic police have dozens of vehicles at their offices—something they would have hardly imagined then. “Motorists held traffic personnel in high respect” Sharma said, reminiscing how the motorists and traffic police were on very good terms, unlike these days. “They would give us a lift if they saw us walking in the streets and drop us at our destinations.”

Officers working in the traffic department these days have an entirely different experience.

Senior Superintendent of Police Indra Prasad Neupane, who heads the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, Ramshahapath, has a different story to tell about relations with motorists. “Until a few months ago there used to be cases involving motorists beating up traffic personnel ,” he said. “They stopped after we filed cases against four such individuals under the Public Offense Act.”

Neupane says the tendency to violate traffic rules has worsened in recent years. “It is the educated people who violate traffic rules the most,” he adds.

There were just 60,000 vehicles in Kathmandu Valley when Neupane was deputed as an inspector with the Valley Traffic Police. Like others, Neupane never thought that the number of vehicles would climb so high.

“There are now 491,000 of them plying Kathmandu’s bottlenecked streets,” he said and expressed worry about the Valley’s traffic system in future. “The number of vehicles has increased 399 percent, but there has not been even minimal growth in road length in the last one and half decades.”

Traffic conditions in Kathmandu could be greatly improved if there were a reliable public transport system, additional traffic lights and sky bridges. “Construction of flyovers at major road intersections and corridors on either side of the Bagmati, Bishnumati, Dhobikhola and Manohara Rivers are also a must to improve worsening traffic conditions,” he suggested.

History of Traffic Policing in Nepal