Gauhati High Court, in a recent order, has directed the commissioner, transport department, to ensure that global positioning system (GPS) is installed in all buses within six weeks.

The high court was responding to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the court’s intervention in easing traffic congestion in the city. Earlier in November, the court had asked the Kamrup (metro) administration, city police and other departments associated with the city’s development to initiate a scientific study on the city’s growing traffic congestion, observing that the issue of traffic congestion not only relate to inconvenience for commuters, but also directly related to air and sound pollution.

The PIL was filed before the court by Rita Das Mozumdar, of the Maligaon area of the city, before the court in 2016 highlighting the city’s growing traffic snarls.

“The state government has informed that one month’s time has been given to the Assam transport department to ensure that the GPS is installed in all buses so that their movements can be tracked. We hereby direct the commissioner, transport department to ensure that GPS is installed in all buses within six weeks,” said a high court division bench of Chief Justice Ajai Lamba and Justice Soumitra Saikia on Tuesday.

Prioritising the safety of the passengers of public transport service, the court also asked the transport department to ensure that all city buses are fitted with proper emergency exits. Besides, it also asked the department to rationalise the route permits to ensure avoidance of traffic congestion on the arterial routes of the city, specifically on the GS Road and Mahatma Gandhi Road.

“The transport commissioner shall further ensure that every bus carries a ‘display plate’ clearly indicating the ‘route permit number’ and the ‘route’ on which it is plying, on the front, back and left side of the bus so that a passenger conveniently knows the route of the bus and buses violating the conditions of the route permit can be proceeded against,” the order added.

The high court further asked the authorities to mark proper space for bus bays within three weeks so that the local buses plying on routes stop for picking and dropping passengers only in those areas.

The court also asked the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to ensure that buses do not stop at the Jalukbari Rotary Point. The petitioner has informed the court that though there are no bus stops at the Jalukbari rotary, the drivers usually stop their vehicles to pick up passengers at the rotary, creating heavy traffic congestion.

The high court also asked the commissioner and secretary, Guwahati development department (GDD) and the chief executive officer, Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), to install CCTVs at the traffic points of the city within three months to photograph traffic violators so that the process of issuing challans can be simplified.

Sources in the traffic police department said in the city on an average 85,000 cases of traffic violations were recorded annually. These cases ranged from jumping signals to reckless driving to drink driving and paperless driving too.

The high court has asked the state government to file an action-taken report on February 3.