Telangana launches Traffic Management Authority, Road and Railway Traffic Safety

The Telangana government on Thursday ordered the formation of the Telangana Traffic Management, Road and Rail Safety Bureau (TG-TMARS), a specialized wing of the state police to oversee traffic enforcement in Telangana, patrol highways, investigate road accidents and supervise the railway police.

The Hyderabad-based office with nationwide jurisdiction will be headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Director General of Police or Inspector General of Police. He will supervise traffic police stations and traffic sections in all police commissions and districts, while their day-to-day operational management will remain with the respective police commissioners and chief inspectors.

The government said that Telangana has a road network of over 32,000 km and more than 1.8 billion registered vehicles. Currently, transport wings operate across bureaus and districts without a common command for standards, technology, training, analysis and inspections. The intention of the new office is to integrate these functions into a common framework.

TG-TMARS will have two main wings, one dealing with transport and the other with road and rail safety. His responsibilities will range from operating traffic signals and adaptive traffic control systems to coordinating traffic arrangements for major events, festivals and parades and clearing obstructions, including vehicles encroaching on sidewalks.

The Road and Railway Safety Wing will oversee e-enforcement and e-challan system and coordinate drives against drunken driving, helmet and seat belt violations, improper driving, lane violation, speeding, overloading and unauthorized lights and honking. The highway patrol units will cover national highways, expressways, outer ring road and notified state highways.

A significant part of the new system will focus on traffic accidents. Each traffic and order police station will designate a road accident response officer who will respond 24/7, secure accident scenes, facilitate the movement of injured persons during the golden hour and ensure that accidents are recorded on the eDAR platform. Fatal and serious accidents will also be reviewed by multi-departmental teams to identify driver, vehicle and road factors and recommend measures to prevent recurrence.

Police stations with significant traffic or road safety problems and any police station having more than 50 km of state or national highways under their jurisdiction will have a highway patrol unit consisting of a head constable and a constable with a dedicated patrol vehicle. The units will be equipped with dashboard cameras, automatic number plate recognition and speed detection devices and will be connected to the e-challan system.

The authority will also maintain a register of repeat and serial offenders, delinquent fleets and syndicates and use e-challan, crash and patrol data to identify hotspots, high-risk corridors, critical junctions, red and black spots. A dedicated technology wing will work on software development, artificial intelligence integrations and enforcement technology adoption.

The Vigilance, Standards and Compliance Cell will audit e-challan and enforcement operations as well as compliance with body cameras and dash cams. It will also handle complaints against traffic personnel, anti-corruption vigilance and performance evaluation of traffic wings and highway patrol units.

The order also establishes a State Traffic Training Academy to train personnel in traffic management, intelligent traffic systems, electronic enforcement, traffic accident response and investigation.

A separate traffic management fund will receive 40% of the composite fees and fines collected by the police under the Motor Vehicle Acts, apart from fees collected from organizers for traffic management at events and some revenue from the Union Ministry of Railways. The money can be used for law enforcement equipment, body and dashboard cameras, patrol vehicles, highway equipment, emergency road work and training.

The government has also created the post of Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) in each police station and another post of Superintendent of Police (Traffic) in each district. Separately, the DGP has been ordered to migrate 300 posts along with personnel from other police forces to TG-TMARS.

The existing traffic wings, traffic police stations and e-challan operations across the state will come under the purview of the authority immediately. The director of TG-TMARS was asked to submit a report to the State Road Safety Council on the operationalization of the office within six months.

Published – 24 Sep 2026 21:28 IST