Three days after taking over the maintenance of traffic lights from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) fixed the technical faults and removed visual obstructions that were making commute on certain stretches of the city chaotic and potentially life-threatening.

While tree branches covering a signal at Agarwal Dharamshala Chowk were trimmed, timers of traffic signals at Gurjar Rajesh Pilot Chowk, Sector 47/50 dividing road, and Sushant Lok 1 were fixed over the last three days.

The progress was made after HT, on April 1, reported about the ill-maintained traffic signals on these stretches because of delay in the handover of responsibility of their upkeep from the MCG to the GMDA. The transfer had been in process since January last year resulting in both the agencies passing the buck on the matter.

“The transfer was completed on April 1. We take full responsibility of the upkeep of traffic lights across the city. We have finalised a contractor for looking after all traffic signals and changes can be seen on the roads,” GMDA chief executive officer V Umashankar said.

At Aggarwal Dharamshala Chowk, commuters travelling from the Gurudwara road towards the Civil Lines faced a major problem in deciphering whether the signal had turned green or not as the signal was hidden by the branches of a tree.

A spot check by Team HT on Thursday showed that authorities have trimmed the branches just enough to ensure commuters can view the signal from all corners. “Crossing the junction was a major problem for me earlier as I could never tell whether the signal was green or not. Earlier, I would only press the accelerator when I was certain that the vehicles from the other three sides had come to a halt. Now that the branches have been trimmed, I can concentrate on the road,” Civil Lines resident Bhanu Sharma said.

Traffic lights at the Gurjar Rajesh Pilot Chowk had a technical problem which left all four signals spontaneously and simultaneously turning yellow for about 15 seconds, after which they would start functioning normally again.

On the Sector 47/50 dividing road, near Baani Square, the traffic signals would turn green on two sides at the same time. As a result, commuters coming from M2K Corporate Park and those coming from Good Earth Mall would come face-to-face, leading to snarls and accidents.

At the traffic light, before Sushant Lok Police station, commuters travelling from the Huda City Centre towards Golf Course Road (GCR) would be caught unawares as their signal would turn green just moments after their waiting timer had indicated that there were 43 seconds left. A spot visit on Thursday showed that the technical glitches at these points had been fixed.

During a meeting last month, the GMDA and traffic police officials had formed a join team to survey all traffic signals in the city after a gap of 15 days to inspect if they were working properly. But the plan was shelved and a new plan, one of electronic real-time monitoring, was adopted.

“We are trying to connect the electronic feed of all traffic signals to the GMDA and traffic police’s control rooms to ensure there is round-the-clock online monitoring of signals,” Umashankar said, adding that optical cables will be used to gather data from traffic signals for real-time monitoring.

First Published: Apr 05, 2019 04:20 IST