Amid COVID-19 restrictions, Mumbai to enforce colour-coded stickers for vehicles of essential services

In order to limit vehicular traffic on Mumbai roads and to allow vehicles related to essential services with more ease, the Mumbai Police has decided to implement a colour code in the city amid COVID-19 restrictions.

In a self-made video, Hemant Nagrale, Mumbai Police Commissioner informed that a self-sticking colour-coded policy will be implemented in three colours- red, green and yellow.

A red sticker will be used for vehicles belonging to doctors, medical staff, and transportation of essential medical supplies; Green for vehicles carrying consumable items (fruits, vegetables, dairy products etc) and Yellow for essential services including the movement of officials from the government, telephone department, electricity department and the media.

"Now we are limiting vehicle flow on roads in accordance with the government's restrictions. This has resulted in traffic jams and doctors, nurses, medical staff, transport of medical equipment are getting trapped. As a solution to this, we are starting with a policy of self-sticking stickers," Nagrale said.

These stickers will be provided free of charge by the Mumbai Police and will be used to navigate traffic conditions. These stickers will be provided on all toll points.

Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a series of 'strict restrictions' in the state till May 1 including the imposition of Section 144 from Wednesday in view of rising COVID-19 cases. He, however, refrained from calling it a 'lockdown'.

Under the new guidelines, all establishments, public places, activities will remain closed in the state. Only essential services will be exempted, and their operations to be unrestricted.

Maharashtra remains one of the worst affected states hit by the pandemic. The state reported 67,123 new cases and 419 deaths on Friday, taking the total active cases in the state to 6,47,933, as per the state health department.

Out of the total active cases, 87,369 are in Mumbai, including 8,834 in the last 24 hours.

( With inputs from ANI )