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As per the data from Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), the Check-Post Management System (CMPS) for inter-district movement 11 September to 12 November sawcmore than 1 million registrations by people and more than 400,000 vehicles also registered.
In the same time frame, 8,747 people have travelled from high risk areas (Samtse, Phuentsholing, Samdrupjongkhar and Gelephu) to low risk area while 10,689 people have travelled from low risk areas to high risk areas.
It was learnt that the number of commuters travelling to and from high risk to low risk and vice versa is very less because a person has to undergo 7 days quarantine before travelling to low risk area from the high risk area.
Focal person of CPMS from RBP, Lt Colonel Ngawang Dorji said that the primary objective of the establishment of the CPMS was to keep track of a person’s movement from one district to another so that it would be easy to contact trace should there be any community transmission. CPMS will cut down the time as they need not have to look for a person manually if needed.
He said, “We have developed the system in a short span of time which is why there was hiccups while implementing. However, each time we managed to resolve the issue and we further evolved the system and made it more flexible and user-friendly.”
Commuters have to pre-register before starting their journey providing details of all the commuters and the vehicle they are travelling in, however, there was an issue. Commuters failed to pre-register due to network disruption, lack of advocacy on CPMS and some being illiterate which ultimately led to traffic congestions and delays at the check post.
“It was challenging for us to manage check posts at Chunzom, Isuna Paro, Wangduephodrang and Hongtsho due to huge traffic congestion as the number of commuters were very huge and since they did not pre-register. However, the rest of the districts was manageable,” he added.
Nevertheless, they have overcome the congestion issue by segregating the incoming and outgoing commuters. To decongest, they have also deployed their men in certain intervals to make sure that the commuters gets registered, he added. For those illiterate commuters or who do not have a smart phones, police help with registration at the check post.
He also said that during special occasion they tend to have a traffic congestion as commuters travel to one place at one go. In such a situation, they encourage commuters to pre-register.
He said, “When network does not work for a certain period of time, we manually write down the details of the commuters and vehicle and we let them go and later when the network is back, we punch the details in the system.”
They have 33 check post in the country who are deployed in between to validate the details of the commuters throughout their journey. The system will validate if a person gets off half way or if a person joins the travelers in between, he said, adding that it makes easier for them to keep track of every commuter.
Meanwhile, he said that cyclist and pedestrian need not pre-register as they will have no registration number. However, their CID number will be punched in the system as they pass any check post.
“To make the system smoother and to avoid unnecessary traffic congestion at the check post, we urge commuters to pre-register. RSTA have been advocating on CPMS and we will keep doing it,” he added.
The system was new and they have received complaints from the commuters according to which they have been enhancing the system.
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