Yo! Exclusive: In conversation with Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Bagchi on road safety, drugs, and more

The baton of public safety has passed into new hands in Visakhapatnam with 1996-batch IPS officer, Shankhabrata Bagchi, taking charge as the new Commissioner of Police.

While the city harbours great ambitions of becoming a financial hub, and IT powerhouse, it faces baseline challenges that first need addressing, and that’s where the police step in.

With an enforcing hand, Commissioner Bagchi is determined to tackle these major obstacles and make Vizag a safer city. What is his roadmap? Warmly welcoming the Yo Vizag team to his office for an exclusive interview, the Commissioner outlined his vision.

“The crux of our plan is to make Vizag more secure,” he explained. “For this purpose, we are first targeting those infringing on road safety and violating the Motor Vehicles Act.” He emphasized that the lack of adherence to traffic rules and the toll of accidents in the city motivated this move.

With helmetless driving being the foremost contributor to accidents, the police have already enforced strict disciplinary measures against drivers, and pillion riders, without ISI-marked helmets. In the near future, overspeeding – another major obstacle to road safety in Vizag – will also be tackled.

“We aim to make Vizag a no-overspeeding city. Soon, speed limits will be clearly advertised on the roads. Those who ignore the speed limits will be caught by AI-integrated CCTV cameras placed all over the city,” said the Commissioner. These cameras, equipped with an Automatic Number Plate Recognition System (ANPRS), will automatically issue e-challans for speed limit violations.

The new technology will also help identify other traffic offences, including overloading, wrong parking, helmet-less driving, and more. “Every offence will be charged with varying periods of license suspension. I am hoping this strategy will act as a deterrent for traffic violators and cut down accidents in Visakhapatnam,” Police Commissioner Bagchi explained.

Another area that has the attention of the Vizag City Police is the 100-day Ganja Action Plan, which was proposed by the newly-formed Andhra Pradesh State Government.

Despite not being a production hub for the drug, Visakhapatnam serves as a major transit point for drug peddlers. “We’ve identified ten road routes and three important railway stations—Gopalapatnam, Duvvada, and Visakhapatnam—used for ganja transportation. By putting ourselves in the shoes of ganja peddlers, we’ve set up ambushes along less obvious, secretive routes that they would take. We constantly change and update our locations to stay one step ahead of them,” the Commissioner said.

Once apprehended, ganja peddlers further benefit the police, as their contacts can be used to track other peddlers, consumers, and manufacturers involved in the trade.

A second ganja menace curbing strategy used by the police involves following the ‘money trail’. “We are focusing on conducting financial investigations on the kingpins. Many of them are so well-off that they can afford to hire top lawyers and secure bail. So, our focus is on freezing their assets and seizing their properties. This approach limits their influence and allows us to tackle the problem at its core,” Commissioner Bagchi elaborated.

He further revealed that plans are in place to deploy eight new sniffer dogs, whose heightened detection abilities will help find ganja that police personnel may miss.

While ensuring road safety and curbing ganja menace are major reforms in focus right now, they are just two of the many aspects that affect the public welfare. Every day, citizens of Visakhapatnam bring various concerns to the attention of Police Commissioner Bagchi. “We get calls regarding money, land, marital, and rental disputes, economic offences, scams, burglaries, and so on. It’s heartbreaking to see.” said the Commissioner. He pointed out that his number is available for the public to call anytime they face an issue. “Our vision is to help everyone to the best of our abilities. That is why I will always pick up a call even if it’s at 3:00 am. If I’m busy or in a meeting, I will always call back.”

Emphasising the importance of public cooperation, Commissioner Shankhabrata Bagchi has shared his contact number, 7995095799, with the public. The number is available to call, SMS, and WhatsApp, at any time of the day and night. 

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