Hospital, Hamidia Road, Berasia Road Bus Stand, Mata Mandir to the Eye Clinic and starting at 2.30 PM returned to Arera Colony via a street that took me to the Chowk Bazar in old Bhopal, New Market Link Road No. 1 and finally to Arera Colony.It was a nightmarish experience negotiating my way through the horrendously chaotic traffic. Almost every one on the road broke rules with impunity. We seemed to have run out of patience and consideration for fellow motorists or pedestrians.

A few listless and disinterested traffic constables could be seen at some crossings and rotaries. They had been completely outnumbered by the volume and indiscipline of the traffic and thought it prudent not to invite trouble by trying to regulate it. Half of the traffic signals on the route either malfunctioned or did not function at all. The motorists took it as a licence to drive irresponsibly disregarding all traffic rules.

Not even a single 2-wheeler driver wore the mandatory helmet (This observation includes traffic and civil policemen). Not one motorists followed the lane rule.

Two and 3 wheelers and TATA taxis appeared to be everywhere and in a tearing hurry risking their own lives and those of others. Most vehicles carried more passengers and baggage than permitted by law and didn't desist from using cell phones or attending to the incoming calls. Cars, goods carriers, station wagons, mini buses and mini trucks and even pedestrians vied with each other in tearing the traffic rules to shreds. Haphazard parking of vehicles and extension of shops by several feet on to the road made even sufficiently wide roads unacceptably narrow and risky to drive.

About a month ago, the Commissioner Bhopal Division took a meeting of the office bearers of the District Traffic Committee with a view to improving city traffic. He issued strict instructions to the concerned officials to act firmly and bring order to the city's chaotic traffic. In his concluding remarks he set a time limit of one month for the officials to restore some semblance of order.

It hardly needs to be pointed out that there has been no improvement, whatsoever, in the condition of the traffic nor are there any signs of something being done in this direction.Thanks to the new found prosperity in the middle class and consequent exponential rise in the numbers of all types of vehicles on the roads and rampant indiscipline there is a worrying rise in the number and frequency of accidents. Hardly a day passes in the city without one or more being killed and many more injured. Unless drastic measures are taken to upgrade infrastructure including upgradation of roads, construction of subways and flyovers, traffic signals and dedicated lanes for 2 wheelers, to effect substantial increase in manpower and an unflagging will to enforce the law without fear or favour, things are unlikely to change.