Bangalore: Partying in India's pub city comes with a clear 11.30 pm deadline. The city police maintain that the deadline is a must to maintain law and order.
Still, Bangalore has gone on to record almost 39,000 cases of drunk driving in 2009. This is because, many pub hoppers move to pubs beyond the city limits thus resulting in more drunken driving violations in the outskirts of Bangalore.
In 2008, there were just 100 drunken driving violations on Banagalore's outskirts. That figure has now doubled. However, the figures don't tell the full story.
In the outskirts of the city, there are very few alcohol screening centres. With satellite cities like Mysore becoming the latest party hotspots, drunken driving on these highways often goes unchecked. Moreover, it also leads one to ask whether the restrictions imposed in Bangalore are responsible for making these highways, a road to hell.
Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner, Bangalore Traffic refuses to accept the link.
"Drunk driving has no connection with the midnight restriction or the place where the parties are being held. The point is [not] whether parties should go on till 11 pm or 12 am. The point is that our tolerance towards driving should be zero." Says Sood.
"We have not said don't party. What we're saying is that people who are drinking, whether in the city or in the outskirts, should make adequate arrangements to reach home safely."
The late night party deadlines in Bangalore have turned many places in the outskirts into party hot spots and this has meant that the drunken driving violations here have almost doubled. The need of the hour now is to ensure that the police screens more drivers to ensure that there are no hit and run cases.
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