Signals on the blink: managing firm,traffic police trade blame

And at a time the traffic police are looking at technical bids by different firms for maintenance of Delhi’s traffic signals,the blame game is truly on. At present,CMS and Keltron manage the signals,with former manning the majority.

“The signals and wiring are about 20 years old and their life is almost over,” says Rajesh Khanna,a manager with CMS. “They have to be upgraded to perform smoothly but the traffic police never replied to our proposal to upgrade the signals.”

Unless restored,he says their condition would worsen every day: “How many times can the same withered cable be repaired? They just won’t last.”

While CMS officials allege they are given “peanuts” as maintenance budgets,senior traffic police officers pooh-pooh the claim. They say the department has a “sufficient budget” for traffic,and that the allegations are a means to divert attention from the firm’s failure in managing the signals.

‘orders not followed’
A senior traffic officer (name withheld on request) claims CMS is making “noise” to play the victim at a time when new contracts to manage traffic signals are soon to be awarded. “There are so many work orders I have given that have not been respected by them (CMS),” the officer says. “It has been months,for instance,since we asked them to install signals on the BRT corridor but they haven’t done anything.”

Rohit Baluja,of the Institute of Road and Traffic Education,says failure of traffic signals is one of the major triggers of traffic jams in the city. Delhi,he says,is the “worst managed” city by CMS — the firm also manages traffic signals in Mumbai and Hyderabad,among others.

In the past week,traffic signals on Minto Road,Rajpath,Tolstoy Marg,Mathura Road (near DPS) and Indraprastha Park were among those that developed a snag almost every day.

Khanna says,“Ideally signals should be upgraded every five or six years but we are fixing signals that haven’t been upgraded in the last 18 or 20 years.” He says CMS maintains traffic signals in other metropolitan cities as well and that traffic in those cities are much smoother. A big reason for Delhi being stuck in jams,he says,is the lack of discipline of drivers here. “Everyone wants to get out first and end up creating a bottleneck.”