Countdown timers at traffic signals in Navi Mumbai restored back from Marathi to English

After displaying the countdown numbers in Marathi for almost a week, the traffic signals at the APMC Market have started showing them in English again.

HT had reported last week that the countdown timers of quite a few traffic signals at the market were displaying the numbers in Marathi. That had also confused the motorists as many of them did not understand the Marathi numbers.

Officials from the electrical department of NMMC then said that they were doing that on a trial basis to understand the feasibility of the system. They also said that they would take the motorists’ opinion into consideration and accordingly take the next course of action.

Contradicting their own statements, they are now saying that the numbers appeared in Marathi due to some software issues and that it was not an intentional move.

“We had no intention of changing the language from English to Marathi. That happened due to some issues in the software and we fixed it earlier this week. Now all the traffic signals in the city are displaying the countdown numbers in English,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

Suman Mukherjee, 45, a resident of Vashi said, “It seems, the NMMC officials are now blaming the software to hide their own haphazard actions. Since the numbers have reappeared in English now, no one will face any issue.”