Power cuts leave traffic cops powerless!

CHENNAI: The daily hour-long power cuts are posing a problem of sorts for the Chennai Traffic Police. Along with your TV and fan, the power cuts also take out the traffic signals in your locality. And that gives rise to two scenarios. Either it leads to chaotic traffic jams or it forces traffic policemen to get out on to the middle of the roads and regulate the traffic manually.According to CTP, there are 600 meaningful, read important, junctions in the city. As it is, only 270 of them have signals. And there is always the five to seven percent of the signals – that’s around 20 – that tend to be down on account of repairs or damage. The traffic police force also has portable signals that can work up to 10 hours if charged once. But then, there are only 20 of those. The traffic police chief though, insists the power cuts are not doing much to add to the already chaotic traffic. “We have a man at every signal at all times of the day. So, it does not require that big an effort to ask them to step out and regulate traffic,” says Additional Commissioner (Traffic) Sanjay Arora.Some major world cities have traffic signal systems that continue to function even in the middle of massive power shutdowns, as they have their own power source and don’t rely on the local power distribution system. When asked if it was time to consider such an option in Chennai, given the tearing growth of the past decade, Arora advises caution.“None of the systems of the West work properly in our conditions. The levels of dust, smoke, usage and just the overall strain on the system usually cause it to fail. We have to experiment and test modified versions of the systems before they can be put in place here,” he says. “There are no players in India that offer such services. If some foreign player comes forward we could consider experimenting with a solution,” Arora adds.Changing tack, he notes that the traffic problem in Chennai is not a problem of mismanagement. “Our road system is over saturated, meaning the number of vehicles are greater than what our roads were designed to take. Further, there is a problem of discipline. Most road users don’t follow the rules. These are the biggest reasons behind rising congestion on our roads,” says Arora.