By Alok Singh
New Delhi, April 7 (IANS): In a move to encourage the capital's young two-wheeler riders to wear helmets, Delhi Police are decorating their protective headgear in vivid patterns and designs for free.

Speaking about the unique initiative, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Shukla said the drive will be launched all over the city but will specially focus on areas like campuses thronged by youngsters.

"We want to motivate the youngsters to wear helmets and this initiative will hopefully help us achieve our goal. The focus will be on areas near universities and colleges," Shukla said.

"It will be free of cost and would go on for a limited time period. If found to be succesfull, the drive will continue," he added.

According to police, teams along with designers armed with spray paint cans, paint brushes and the like will be stationed at strategic spots and any rider can approach them to get their helmets jazzed up for free.

"We will hire part-time designers who will decorate the helmets on the spot in a few minutes as per the wish of the riders," Shukla told IANS.

The officer said that a large number of deaths happened in Delhi due to riders not wearing helmets.

Till March 15, 105 riders lost their lives on the city roads. Last year, 126 riders died on the roads.

Delhi traffic police said they fined around 300,000 riders, of whom 106,000 were penalised for not wearing helmets.

"The drive will help to encourage riders, especially the younger ones, to wear the helmets. It will also make the riders police friendly," said Shukla.