Kakinada: Erratic signals throw traffic out of gear

Kakinada: Malfunctioning of most of the newly set-up traffic signals in the city is creating confusion among motorists as the green and red signals are not functioning as per the road traffic signal rules. At many junctions, the red light is switched on continuously and at some other places green lights are switched on continuously. Most of these signal posts are set up recently. The lights are switched on round the clock resulting in impatient motorists moving forward and even going beyond the stop line much to the annoyance of the pedestrians.

The commuters in the city are worried as faulty traffic signals at several intersections may lead to accidents. The absence of traffic police cause all the more disturbance at intersections where signals are mal-functional. Moreover, the defunct traffic signals across the city are leading to major chaos at busy junctions.

Dr APJ Vinu, psychologist and corporate trainer, speaking to 'The Hans India' here on Monday, said that many drivers stopping at red signals for long time and many vehicles stopped for long time is resulting in traffic jams. Later, they are realising that these are test signals and they are driving off even when it is red. If this practice is encouraged, the psychological in-built of our brain to stop when it is red, will lose its subconscious impression of red is danger and stop. He said that the public in Kakinada will be used to drive when red signal is on, and in future, when the real time application of signaling system is implemented, the public will not stop when the red signal is on resulting in lot of confusion and even accidents.

Vinu said that some of the busiest intersections in the city are causing severe inconvenience to commuters, leading to road mishaps, arguments and traffic standstill. He remarked that for the past one year this non-functional or switching on of red lights in the name of trial and testing has been going on. This will develop a psychological state that public in Kakinada used to drive when red is on as it has been a habit for one year. Once the inbuilt brain signal is lost to stop when the red is glowing, they even drive like that in other cities also since they lost the balance to stop when it is red. Naturally, the drivers are inviting challans for traffic signal violation. These test signals are blinking round the clock for past one year with faulty signals at Sarpavaram junction, Nagamalli Thota, Bhanugudi, Jagannaickpur, Annammaghati Centers and others are yet to be rectified and made functional. Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the police department should switch off these signal lights or maintain perfect signaling to avoid confusion.

Kakinada Traffic DSP B Ramakrishna speaking to 'The Hans India' here on Monday, said that as part of Smart City programme the Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) entrusted the task of procuring signal system to the Sterlite Technologies (SLT), a Germany-based company. He said that a number of times the District Police officials requested District Collector D Muralidhar Reddy and Municipal Commissioner K Ramesh for restoring the traffic signal system at Kakinada. He said that there is no positive response from the district officials. He said that keeping in view the interest of people the manual system would be operated by the police constables. The District Police officials hoped that the officials would respond to be requisition of the police department for restoring the traffic signal system in pivotal areas.