Lack of manpower has derailed police’s plan to check rash driving in the steel city by using an interceptor van.

The city traffic police started using the lone interceptor van in October this year on mishap-prone stretches. However, there is only one trained operator and that has forced the police to use the van only during the day.

“We have only one trained operator for handling the laser-based speed guns with high-resolution cameras and night-vision facility and the computer software, and a driver. The interceptor van is being used at various mishap zones where there have been complaints of speeding during daytime. However, as there is no additional staff we cannot use the van at night,” said a police official associated with the traffic wing.

Sources said that due to staff crunch the interceptor van personnel (driver and the operator) are unable to issue spot challans.

“As per norms apart from a driver and an operator, there should be a senior (sub inspector-rank) official along with two armed personnel for issuing spot challanto those indulging in over-speeding,” said a policeman. “However, since there are only two personnel the prosecution is being done by district transport office (DTO). The interceptor van personnel complete their duty in the daytime (till 5pm) and submit the list of vehicles found to be speeding to the traffic DSP (Shivendra Kumar). The traffic DSP in turn hands over the list to the DTO for sending notices to the speeding-vehicle owners.”

The interceptor van has a laptop and a printer to issue spot challan, along with wireless facility. The laser guns and radars fitted can gauge speeds of vehicles up to 250 kmph even at a distance of 1.5km. Based on inputs from the laser-based cameras, a challan can be printed for offenders in two seconds. The van’s equipment can also capture multiple speeding vehicles on a road.

The high-resolution cameras can work in all light conditions and produce photographs of the over-speeding vehicles’ registration numbers and GPS coordinates for exact location and help in identifying speeding vehicles in multiple-lane roads. The video can be used as evidence for prosecuting offenders. The laptop is used to show the video recordings from cameras. There are also breath analysers to test if the offender is driving under the influence of alcohol while the wireless set can alert about the offenders to traffic cops.

“We are not able to use the breathalyser due to lack of staff. The breathalyser check can only be carried out under an official of the rank of sub-inspector,” said a policeman at Sakchi police station.

The state police headquarters gave the city police the interceptor van in August 2018 and after a prolonged delay due to availability of trained personnel in use of the software, the van was finally pressed into service in October this year.

East Singhbhum senior superintendent of police (SSP) Anoop Birtharay admitted the manpower crunch. “We are not able to use the interceptor van at night due to manpower crunch as most of the forces have gone for election duty,” he said. “We expect them to be back in the next week. We would press the interceptor van 24x7 for not only curbing speed demons but also checking drunken driving, specially during New Year.”