Hyderabad Traffic Police and Social Media..... Control Traffic by getting Traffic

Get the Traffic to control the Traffic...

Hyderabad is a prime city located in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The city became a hit in the Business World post to the stint of Mr. Naidu as the Chief Minister of the state. The city has been a great source of attraction in history too. From Nizams royal rule to Kohinoor Diamond to the post Independence differences (resolved by Sardar Patel) to the Hitech City era; the city has never missed a chance to be on the World's talk.

I am fortunate and blessed to be born here. I have been bought up playing and schooling in the streets and localities of this incredibly multicultural and multilingual city. Everything has changed here- the infrastructure, the standard of living, the education system and perhaps the beliefs of the people. But, one thing that has never changed for decades till an year ago or two, is the belief and thinking of people towards the Traffic Police of the city. It wouldn’t surprise one if you hear a relatively old man in his forties talking against the management of the Traffic Police Department here. It has always been a belief of majority that the Traffic Police Department can never handle Traffic in this city. I have been hearing the same thing from my Grand Father and my Father and all my relatives of their era. But times have been changing. The Department of Traffic in Hyderabad has been taking a way against this belief of people. The Hyderabad Traffic Police is doing all that is required to manage the traffic and get the reputation for their department in the eyes of its customers (Citizens).

The best step taken for this purpose by the department was to go Social. Almost 2 years ago, Hyderabad Traffic Police made its presence on the Social Media Platform of Facebook by creating a page named HYDERABAD TRAFFIC POLICE (HTP). Within a very less span of not more than 2 years, the page likes crossed more than 49,000 (as on date). The department is using this page to inform its followers/Facebook Members about different issues related to their area of working.

For instance:

• The HTP posts campaigns related to safety while driving through various copy writings on the page.
• They keep posting about the traffic jams in various area under their jurisdiction from time to time and also update about the expected time of traffic clearance.
• They also talks about the new technology being used by the department like Signal Cameras, CCTV, PDA machines etc.
• Any new rule and the old ones too are reported on the page from time to time. The best example of which is the newly issued rule of removing the black filming on car windows. The campaign was massive and the admin aptly answered all the discussions and questions on the page.

The above mentioned are very few of the activities they do over their social media platform. They have now stretched their arms over Twitter too. As Twitter is not so popular with the residents of Hyderabad, it will take little more time than expected for the HTP to write a success story on this platform too. But eventually Twitter is the best medium for what they are aiming to do.

Much of the credit for this initiative by the department goes to the Addl. Commisioner of Traffic (Hyderabad) Mr. CV Anand. (Blog of CV Anand: http://cvanand.blogspot.in/). I had an opportunity to meet him when I along with few of my close friends had launched a campaign called as “Hyderabad Traffic Police Roxx” during my Business School days. I was so much inspired and impressed by his commitment towards his work that the whole negative thinking engraved into me since child hood about the incapability of Traffic Police disappeared in fraction of seconds as I met him. The campaign was given a green signal from him and we did it to the best possible way any student could have done. Being associated with the HTP  during such campaign, I joined the HTP page during its initial days when there were hardly 150 odd likes but today I myself feel so proud that the page has reached more than 49000 likes. The Power of Social Media especially Facebook has been optimally used and is being used by the Hyderabad Traffic. The Traffic Police is trying to increase traffic on its Facebook page to manage the traffic in the city. And that’s the power of Social Media.

Today, If I have any queries or want to know anything related to traffic, I can post my queries over the HTP page and I will be responded back. If I want to lodge any complaint against any official who has been rude or has manipulated things with me, I can post my problems on their page and they will respond. The platform has given wings to both the parties in the run – the citizens and the department. It has bridged the gap from one way communication to two way communication. I am impressed by the way the department is socializing itself on social media platforms. If you want to know more about them you can simply click on the link :
Link: Hyderabad Traffic Police Facebook Page

Social Media a Power to You.............

Regards,

Rohit Tiwari