Rainy days ahead, traffic police fret over dysfunctional traffic lights, power cuts

NOIDA: While water-logging post rainfall causes traffic congestion at major points in the city, most traffic signals including those on the main roads are either dysfunctional or not functioning due to power cuts and uncharged solar lights.

According to the traffic police, out of the total 109 traffic lights, around 90 lights are run on solar power.

As there was no sunlight for the past two days, the solar lights could not be charged and frequent power cuts led to traffic lights remaining dysfunctional.

However, a reality check on the arterial roads of Captain Vijyant Thapar Marg and the Captain Shashi Kant Marg revealed that many traffic lights have not been functioning for years.

The red lights can play a major irritant as the MeT department has predicted that rainfall will continue over western UP for the next 24 hours and decrease thereafter.

Traffic lights at crucial points like the Rajnigandha,Balaknath, and Indian Oil roundabout have not been working for the past two days due a power cut.

"There is no power and the red light is not functioning for the past two days. It becomes difficult for one person to manage traffic without a functional red light," a traffic constable deployed at the Rajnigandha intersection told TOI.

Traffic marshal Rakesh Singh, who was deployed at the cut between Sector 27 and Sector 18 signals however said that the red lights have not been working for the past two-three months.

A cop deployed at the police chowki near the Botanical Garden red light said that the traffic signal has not been working for years.

Traffic lights were not functioning at the Sector 71, 50 and the 51 intersections too, which led to traffic getting disturbed when rains lashed the city on Friday.

The situation was same till Saturday evening, when officials claimed to restore power in some areas.

Meanwhile, officials are upset over the theft of batteries of the solar lights installed at the signals.

Officials say that miscreants flee with the batteries, leading to the dysfunctional signals.

"This is an old problem. Small-time miscreants flee with the solar batteries which causes the red lights becoming dysfunctional when during a power cut. However, the traffic lights were not functioning due to power cuts by the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL). We got power restored for the Rajnigandha, Sector 71, Indian Oil roundabout signals on Saturday evening on the request of the traffic police," RP Singh, project engineer and incharge of traffic signals at Noida Authority told TOI.