While traffic volume has gone up, like every year, in the festival season, a bigger factor creating logjams is the number of traffic signals going on the blink. The Delhi Traffic Police reckons an average of 50 signals go kaput every day, and blame it on the firm managing the signals.

But CMS, the company manning a majority of Delhi’s 725 traffic signals, passes the buck right back. It blames Delhi’s “indisciplined” people, as also the traffic police turning a deaf ear to its repeated SOS to upgrade the signal and wiring system.

And at a time the traffic police are looking at technical bids by different firms for maintenance of Delhi’s traffic signals, the blame game is truly on. At present, CMS and Keltron manage the signals, with former manning the majority.

“The signals and wiring are about 20 years old and their life is almost over,” says Rajesh Khanna, a manager with CMS. “They have to be upgraded to perform smoothly but the traffic police never replied to our proposal to upgrade the signals.”

Unless restored, he says their condition would worsen every day: “How many times can the same withered cable be repaired? They just won’t last.”

While CMS officials allege they are given “peanuts” as maintenance budgets, senior traffic police officers pooh-pooh the claim. They say the department has a “sufficient budget” for traffic, and that the allegations are a means to divert attention from the firm’s failure in managing the signals.

‘orders not followed’
A senior traffic officer (name withheld on request) claims CMS is making “noise” to play the victim at a time when new contracts to manage traffic signals are soon to be awarded. “There are so many work orders I have given that have not been respected by them (CMS),” the officer says. “It has been months, for instance, since we asked them to install signals on the BRT corridor but they haven’t done anything.”

... contd.