‘Heavy construction to blame for signalling woes in city’

With traffic signals switching lights in seconds or not working altogether,chaotic scenes,jams or worse,accidents,are on the rise.

“I face a lot of difficulty while crossing the IIT Hostel stretch and the Vasant Kunj intersection on the Outer Ring Road because of the flyovers being constructed there. Traffic signals fail repeatedly at night and that in particular is a problem,” Ishank Kataria,third year student at IIT-Delhi,said.

Hemant Abhishek,a resident of Malviya Nagar,said the traffic signal at the Laxman Public School intersection is often out of order due to the Metro construction work. “It was close to midnight and the traffic signal was not working. Trucks and Metro bulldozers were driving past. I waited and waited and finally had to go through the crossing by honking and stopping other vehicles,” he said. All four traffic signals between Ber Sarai and Malviya Nagar were out of order,he said.

With the Delhi Police getting ready to put in place an Intelligent Traffic System before next year’s Commonwealth Games,questions are being asked as to whether such a sophisticated system could work efficiently in a city where even traffic lights are posing problems.

S N Srivastava,Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic),said there are numerous reasons behind such incidents. “With so much construction going on,problems are bound to crop up. At times,traffic signals are damaged while being shifted because of construction activities or their wires get disconnected,” he said. “We rectify the faults immediately,” Srivastava said.

Putting the onus on construction agencies,Srivastava said they are required to have proper arrangements like traffic volunteers to manage such problems. “We can’t work in isolation and construction agencies need to do their bit. They are required to give an undertaking on this. If they don’t comply with these provisions,their traffic clearance can be withdrawn,thereby stalling construction work,” he said.

The joint commissioner said signalling would improve once the Intelligent Traffic System is in place. “It is a new and advanced system and will help us in a big way in controlling and monitoring vehicular movement. Though there are some problems,a lot of good things are happening and things will be much better before long,” he said.