Skies grey, solar-powered traffic signals go black

NOIDA: An overcast sky in the past two days has virtually taken the light out of traffic signals in major points of the city. Most signals, including those on the main roads, are not functioning due to uncharged solar panels.

According to traffic police, out of the total 109 traffic lights in Noida, nearly 90 run on solar power.

As there was no sunlight due to overcast conditions in the past two days, the traffic lights could not be charged and frequent power cuts led to most of them not functioning.

However, on further enquiry, it was found that many traffic lights on the arterial roads of Captain Vijayant Thapar Marg and the Captain Shashi Kant Marg have not been functioning for years while those at crucial points like Rajnigandha Chowk, Balaknath and Indian Oil roundabout have not been working for the past two days due to power cut.

"There is no power. So the traffic signal is not functioning for the past two days. It becomes difficult for one person to manage traffic without a functional red light," said a traffic constable deployed at the Rajnigandha intersection. However, traffic marshal Rakesh Singh, who was deployed at the intersection between Sector 27 and Sector 18, said that the red lights have not been working for the past two-three months.

Meanwhile, Noida authority officials are fuming over the fact that the batteries of the solar lights installed at the signals are stolen. "This is an old problem. Miscreants flee with the solar batteries making traffic lights non-functional during power cuts. However, the traffic lights are not functioning for the past few days due to power cuts. We got power restored for many of them on Saturday evening," RP Singh, project engineer and incharge of traffic signals, Noida Authority told TOI.