Hyderabad, July 14: Hyderabad will soon get a modern and centralised traffic signal system. It this means that the timings of the red and green lights can be changed from a central server in the police control room depending on the traffic load at each junction. This is called new intelligent traffic signals management system it also enables the traffic police to provide a green channel for VVIP movement.
This project will be jointly executed by the Traffic Police and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. It promises to spare motorists with the daily traffic jams caused by the unscientific functioning of the existing system. At present, traffic signals in Hyderabad function independent of each other, with out synchronisation.
While urban development and transport experts have welcomed the new system, they caution that it will not cure all traffic problems. It may ensure smoother flow of traffic, but bad and undisciplined driving can only be cured when such drivers fear that they will be prosecuted and have their driving licences cancelled for repeat offences.
Traffic and transport expert and former director general of the Engineering Staff College of India, Dr S. Nagabhushan Rao, emphasises the need for maintenance of the traffic signal system. Neither the GHMC nor the traffic police have traffic engineering experts to monitor and maintain the signals due to which the situation on the traffic front only gets worse.
Commenting on the new traffic light system, the additional commissioner of police (Traffic), Mr C.V. Anand said that only an expert agency that has already executed such projects and is presently maintaining them in India or abroad, will be given the project.
They will have to install and maintain it for five years in Greater Hyderabad. Presently, there are 140-odd traffic signals in Hyderabad and another 75 in Cyberabad. The city requires 100 more traffic signals, 50 each in Hyderabad and Cyberabad, and the new project will fill the gap.
-Agencies