New Police Commissioner of the city Mahesh Chandra Laddha, took charge on Monday from the outgoing Inspector General T Yoganand, who has been posted as additional CP of Vijayawada. With the city growing at a rapid pace, handling traffic will be major challenge, said Mahesh Chandra Laddha.

"Handling traffic is a multi-department task and we will work in coordination with other agencies such as GVMC to mitigate the issues such as parking or setting up new signals and diversions," he said, at press conference after taking charge from outgoing CP T. Yoganand.

"While on one hand manpower shortage is an issue, we will have to upgrade technology, be it smart signals or CC TV cover to handle the traffic issues," he said.

Listing out the focus areas, Mr. Laddha said apart from traffic, cyber crime is another segment, where he would like to focus upon. "Visakhapatnam is the biggest city in the State and the rate of cyber crime is also high. A cyber forensic lab is coming up and we hope that it will aid in cracking cyber crime," he said.

Mr. Laddha sounded very keen on upgrading technology. "Technology is not the answer for every policing issues and challenges. But wherever it can be used, we will go for technological intervention," he said. According to him, improving the CC TV cover and electronic beat system was the order of the day, and he would approach the corporate and the public sector units to fund the initiative from their CSR funds. Law and order is another area, which needs a special focus. "The city has traditionally been a peaceful city and my goal is to make it the safest city," he said.