Partial civic transfer creates chaos on roads

Over the last 14 months, traffic signals at several junctions have been plagued by defects that are endangering the lives motorists and pedestrians on a daily basis. As the task of maintaining traffic signals in the city has been in the process of being transferred from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugam (MCG) to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), both the agencies have refused to take responsibility for maintaining the signals.

With the transfer set to be completed on April 1, the GMDA will soon become the sole agency for maintaining traffic signals in the city. “The process of transferring the responsibility of maintaining traffic signals is scheduled to be completed by April 1. We are technically evaluating the bids of private contractors. The contractor that is finalised will be responsible for maintaining all the traffic signals in the city,” said V Umashankar, chief executive officer, GMDA. There are two main defects that are most common among traffic signals— technical glitches and blocked vision.

Among the junctions where traffic signals have been found to be malfunctioning, the most important is Gurjar Rajesh Pilot Chowk in Sector 50.It is a four-way intersection, where, for traffic travelling from Golf Course Extension Road towards Sector 50, the traffic signals instead of turning to green from red turns yellow for 10 seconds. As a result of this, vehicles from all points converge at the same time leading to congestion.

“As I am familiar to this problem, I wait for the traffic signals to return back to normalcy, before I press the accelerator,” said Harshit Kumar, a resident of Sector 50.

At the traffic junction on Sector 47/50 dividing road, opposite Baani Square, traffic signals at two points turn green at the same time. Commuters travelling from the direction of M2K Corporate Park, start accelerating towards SS Plaza after their right-turn signal turns green. However, in doing so, they come face to face with the approaching traffic coming from the direction of Good Earth mall, the signal for which has also turned green at the same time.

At the traffic signal at Sushant Lok-1, 50 metres before the local police station, motorists also encounter a similar technical glitch. Commuters travelling from the Huda City Centre towards the direction of Golf Course Road are caught by surprise when the signal turns green, moments after the timer indicated that there were 43 seconds left.

“Mentally you aren’t prepared to press the accelerator as vehicles from Block-C in Sushant Lok-1 are still turning towards Golf Course Road,” said Anaita Kaul, a resident of DLF Phase-4.

Apart from such technical issues, certain traffic lights are almost invisible to commuters. Many of them are blocked by surrounding structures and roadside trees. The traffic signal below the Subhash Chowk flyover, on Sohna Road, is partially blocked by a pole, while the traffic signals at Aggarwal Dharamshala Chowk are blocked almost entirely by a tree.

At the Sohna Road signal, motorists on the left-most lane aren’t able to understand whether the signal is green or red and largely rely on the movement of those in the middle and the right-most lanes, said residents. “At certain angles on the left-most lane, the signal is almost non-visible. I rely on the vehicles travelling on my right, and accordingly take a call to accelerate,” said Anand Rungta, a resident of Sector 47.

At Aggarwal Dharamshala Chowk, those travelling from Gurudwara Road towards the Civil Hospital face a similar difficulty in understanding whether the signal is green or not, as the branches of the tree almost entirely block their vision.

“Even if my vehicle is less than 10 metres from the signal, I still can’t make out whether the signal is green or red. It is only when vehicles from other sides stop, I am able to make out that the signal has turned green,” said Bhanu Sharma, a resident of Civil Lines.

Traffic experts said that functioning traffic signals are critical to the city, as their failure has been identified as one of the major reasons for road fatalities. “There were nearly 200 fatalities in Gurugram last year due to poor infrastructure (including traffic signals) at intersections,” said Sarika Panda Bhatt, program coordinator with Haryana Vision Zero.

GMDA officials, when asked about the issue, said they are in the process of finalising a contractor who will be responsible for maintaining all traffic signals. Gurugram traffic police said that a joint team of the GMDA and the traffic police will be supervising all traffic lights in the city. “In the last meeting of the GMDA, it was decided that a joint team of the GMDA and traffic police officials will carry out a visibility-maintenance audit of all the signals at an interval of every 15 days. Subsequently, changes, both mechanical and terms of placement would be addressed. Formal orders will be issued in this regard,” said Himanshu Garg, DCP (traffic).