Coimbatore: Face music from police, literally, at traffic signals

COIMBATORE: Isn’t getting stuck at traffic signals for long irritating and annoying? Well, the city police are now planning to make the waiting period at the traffic signals a soothing experience for the motorists by playing popular instrumental music (karaoke) by Ilaiyaraja and A R Rahman.
City police commissioner V Balakrishnan on Saturday unveiled the plans to launch the novel initiative at the busy Lakshmi Mills Junction, Hope College Junction, Singanallur Junction and on Avinashi Road. “We hope this will help the commuters relax, who otherwise jump the red signal in a hurry and get involved in accidents. Presently, we are in the process of installing amplifiers at the identified places.”
The move comes at a time when commuters are getting stuck at heavy traffic snarls during the peak hours in the morning and evening at these junctions, because of the construction work on the elevated highway on Avinashi Road. The commuters are forced to wait three minutes each at SITRA, Hope College Junction, Lakshmi Mills Junction and other major junctions. The situation isn’t different at Singanallur Junction either.
“We have fixed small amplifiers to the traffic signal poles at Lakshmi Mills, Hope College Junction and Singanallur Junction. Traffic police personnel at these junctions will be provided with pen drives containing the instrumental music of Ilaiyaraja and AR Rahman to be played for the commuters,” the police commissioner said.
He said the traffic police would also create awareness on following the traffic rules among the motorists at the traffic signals.
“We are planning to fix amplifiers to all the traffic signal poles in the city soon and link them to the modern police control room at the police commissionerate, from where the traffic cops will play the instrumental music. They will also host awareness programmes for the motorists from the control room in future,” the city top cop said.
On Saturday evening, traffic police held an awareness drive at the Lakshmi Mills Junction. They advised the motorists not to cross the stop line at the traffic signals and warned to fine them, if they were to do so.