Traffic Police’s red signal delays work on new roads

Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta said the BMC has had about six meetings with the traffic department on this issue and a breakthrough is likely on Tuesday. “We are hoping that all the traffic clearances will come in by tomorrow. Traffic officials had strong reservations about letting the work begin on all roads simultaneously,but we have assured them that the work will be done lane-wise. All lanes in one direction will be completed by February,while the remaining lanes on the other side will be completed by mid-May,” he said.

When Newsline spoke to Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Vivek Phansalkar on Friday,he said it was not practical to take up work on all the roads at one time. “How is the city going to function if all roads are dug up at one time?” he said. He was unavailable for comment on Monday.

Owing to a fund crunch,the BMC had not undertaken any road projects for the past three years. But months before the civic elections,it has taken up work on over 800 roads at one go. It has also reduced the contract period from 18 to nine months,but only seven months are left until mid-May when work needs to be finished before the onset of monsoon.

Meanwhile,Gupta added that in order to ensure that road construction sites are not an eyesore,the BMC has ordered contractors to use aesthetic fibre barricades instead of the tin sheets that are crudely erected to demarcate the work area. “It will also be a long-term investment for contractors for their future projects. The idea was mooted by Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar during his recent visit to one of the project sites,” he said.