Bengaluru traffic police roll out the ‘Cobra Beat’ system: dedicated patrol officers to monitor choke points, clamp vehicles, issue fines and clear bottlenecks on key stretches like Commercial Street. Real-time enforcement aims to cut peak-hour congestion.
Bengaluru Traffic Police Unveil ‘Cobra Beat’ to Combat Daily Congestion
Bengaluru Traffic Police have launched a ground-level initiative called the “Cobra Beat” to tackle persistent congestion by deploying dedicated patrol officers — known as “Cobras” — to monitor and act on recurring choke points during peak hours. Each traffic station will assign two fixed routes to Cobras who will identify illegal parking, wrong-side driving, and obstructions, and take immediate action such as clamping vehicles, issuing fines and clearing the road to restore traffic flow. The move is part of a wider enforcement push that also includes revived interception drives and signal synchronisation at major junctions.
Officials say the Cobra Beat focuses on micro-level causes of jams that escalate into long tailbacks. DCP (South) Gopal M Byakod explained that even short delays from wrongly parked vehicles — often as little as ten seconds apiece — accumulate quickly into minutes of congestion. By deploying three to four Cobras per station in busier jurisdictions, police aim to remove small but frequent obstructions before they trigger gridlock, especially in high-footfall corridors such as Commercial Street and adjacent Dispensary Road.
The initiative complements earlier measures in the city, including the relocation of 103 poorly placed bus stops and the roll-out of signal synchronisation at key intersections to reduce wait times. Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Karthik Reddy has directed deputy commissioners to map critical stretches in their zones and implement Cobra Beat routes immediately, even as officers adapt route lengths to local conditions. Authorities believe real-time enforcement combined with targeted engineering fixes can deliver faster gains than infrastructure projects alone.
