For the past four months, the two speed guns purchased by the Mumbai Traffic Police, with much fanfare, have been non-functional. The two guns (Laser and Radar) were put into service last year but have not been functioning since January this year, making life easier for rash drivers and speed demons.

The Mumbai Traffic Police had spent a whopping Rs50 lakh for the guns. Practical training was given 24 senior officers and 50 police constables across the city.

“The policemen were given three-day training session last year. The session concentrated on imparting training to the policemen, to get used to operate the guns on roads. The policemen were taken to various important locations at Worli Seaface, Marine Drive, Lamington Road, and on both the Express Highways (Eastern & Western), the roads were the most of accidents take place,” a Traffic Police officer said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satish Mathur admitted that the two speed guns procured by the Traffic Police were non-functional. “There is some technical problem in them and they have been sent for repairing,” he said. “We are trying to get it back on the roads at the earliest,” Mathur added.

The speed guns have been a great success in Nagpur. The guns were put in use last year. According to Nagpur Police Commissioner SPS Yadav, the main reason for their success in Nagpur was that fatal accident spots were identified and then the guns were placed there. “It proved to be a great success and we would fine anyone who was over speeding. Soon people got the message and started driving within the permitted speed limit. This has helped in checking the number of accidents, which have been reduced to almost nil,” Yadav said.