Hyderabad, January 21: City cops have repeatedly issued warnings to superbike owners asking them to stay away from racing but the message, it seems, has not reached home as the speeding menace continues unabated on city roads.
The speed limit violation data available with traffic cops reveals exactly how dangerous it is to move on city roads as vehicles zooming through the busy Necklace Road have been recorded hitting up to 145kmph on a weekday morning.
After a series of superbike crashes on the outskirts of the city and with reports of road-racing becoming a craze among the youth, traffic cops conducted a study that revealed that there are 61 sports-bikes which are registered locally. The data, sourced from RTA, says that these bikes have engine capacity ranging from 500cc to 1783cc.
The data on these bikes was then dispatched to the concerned assistant commissioners of police (ACPs) who formed special teams to check the antecedents of the bike-owners.
“When our officials met the owners of the superbikes, most of them said that only occasionally did they take out their bikes, and that too mostly on weekends. We have advised the riders not to indulge in racing,” DCP GVG Ashok Kumar said.
The study also noted that races which were being held late at night on Road Number 1 & 2 at Banjara Hills, Road Number 36 on Jubilee Hills and at Necklace Road have now moved to the Outer Ring Road due to stronger police vigil on these roads.
In 2011, traffic sleuths booked 23,340 vehicles for speeding as against 22,129 cases in 2010.
That means a daily 65 vehicles booked for speeding within city limits. That despite the August 2010 notification declaring 50kmph as the speed limit for two-wheelers in the city with 60kmph being as fast as four-wheelers could go. The speed limit for vehicles on the PVNR Expressway had been pegged at 80kmph.
At present, cases are being booked against speed offenders under section 183 of the MV Act which lets them off the hook with just a meagre Rs 200 fine. A paltry fine and the lack of any mechanism to keep habitual offenders in check seem to be the main reasons behind the police’s lack of success against speeding.
—SOurce:TOI