Hyderabad: To ensure increasing vehicular population in the city and regulated traffic flow across its borders, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is gearing up to install traffic signals at 155 junctions and 98 pelican signals in addition to the existing 221 traffic signals.
The Municipal Corporation has set up a new agency for the installation of new signals, in addition to replacing unclean signals in many places. This is after complaints by the traffic police at all the three police commissioners at different points on the wrong signals.
The existing contract with Bharath Electronics Limited (BEL) for operation and maintenance of the existing 221 signals has recently expired and the new firm has taken up the maintenance of the existing ones, apart from preparing for the installation of new signal.
The GHMC Standing Committee had already approved these plans. New 155 traffic signals and 98 pelican signals will be installed at a cost of about Rs 59 crore. Of the 155 signals, 80 are in the Hyderabad Police Commissionerate boundary, 50 in the Cyberabad border and 25 in the Rachkonda border. Similarly, out of the proposed 98 Pelican signs, 41 are to be set up in Hyderabad, 39 in Cyberabad and 18 in Rachkonda Commissionerate Courts.
The Municipal Corporation has constituted special teams to identify and rectify impure traffic signals. A survey was carried out last year and it was found that out of 221 traffic signals, 86 signals were functioning properly and 80 others were partially functioning. A senior official said that the remaining 55 signals were not functioning due to the implementation of the signal free U-turn and Hyderabad Metro Rail works were done earlier.
The functioning and maintenance of these signals by BEL was not satisfactory for other reasons including inadequate deployment of staff and availability of parts. The official said that despite coming up for discussion during a meeting last year, BEL could not rectify the bad signals.
The new firm will now operate and maintain existing traffic signals as well as install new ones. He said that all traffic signals in the GHMC boundary would be synchronized with the Command Control Center for continuous monitoring and regulation of traffic.
