This New Year, get sloshed without worries and forget all about who is going to drive you back home. The Delhi Traffic Police have reached out to the Capital’s pubs, bars and restaurant owners to connect with taxi aggregators, such as Uber and Ola, and take responsibility of dropping drunk guests home.
The move has come to ensure there are zero accidents on the usually eventful night.
“We held a series of meetings with owners and bar managers of these outlets, asking them to have a mechanism in place to send guests, who have had a few drinks too many, home safe. We want to make sure that there are no accidents and people are safe after the celebrations,” said Ajay Kashyap, Special CP (Traffic).
He added that the aim is to ensure that nobody has to drive in an inebriated condition just because they could not find a ride.
“By the time the guests plan to leave, its is already very late and the chances of mishaps are the highest. We have briefed restaurant owners to keep a close watch and not allow anyone to drive home drunk,” he said.
Restaurant owners, too, have a plan handy for the Saturday evening. Popular outlets in Connaught Place, including Warehouse Cafe, Openhouse cafe, Town House and Lord of the Drinks, have tied up with Uber for the evening.
“We have already tied up with the cab service to ensure there are enough rides available at the time. Also, the cab operator has agreed to a 20 per cent discount on each ride,” said Charanjeet Singh, Operations Director, Warehouse Cafe.
Umang Tewari, owner of the Vault Cafe, Junkyard Cafe, Garam Dharam and Cafe OMG, too, said they have a similar system in place all year around. “While we have a tie-up with cab services all year around, we take special care on New Year,”Tewari said.
Besides private cabs, some places also plan to offer in-house valet services. “We remain in touch with taxi services to incentivise cab drivers to be available around the time. Also, some of our outlets will offer valet services or drivers to drop people home. It cannot be police’s responsibility alone to make sure that people don’t drink and drive,” said Riyaaz Amlani, President, National Restaurants Association of India.
In addition to all this, more than 1,200 traffic personnel, local police and additional forces will be deployed all over the city to prevent mishaps. No vehicular movement will be allowed in inner, middle or outer circles of Connaught Place after 7pm in the evening, and nearly 70 police teams will check drunken driving in the city.
“Special pickets will be placed to check people doing stunts on motorcycles, over-speeding, and reckless driving, in co-ordination with the local police, and PCR vans will be deployed in areas such as Mehrauli, Saket, Vasant Vihar, South Extension, Rajouri Garden, Pitampura Laxmi Nagar and Mayur Vihar,”a senior traffic officer said.