THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Motorists and pedestrians are having a hard time traversing city roads due to malfunctioning traffic signals in the state capital. Signals at busy junctions such as Attakulangara, Killipalam, Neeramankara, Over Bridge and Kowdiar are lying defunct while those in other parts of the district are either erratic or non-functional owing to the ongoing smart road works by Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (SCTL).
“Several signals have become defunct and therefore managing the traffic has become a herculean task for us. We are forced to manage the traffic snarls manually. Besides, it’s summer and the lack of traffic signals is taking a toll on our manpower,” said a city traffic official.
The traffic police have given a letter to the SCTL to make the signals operational.
Some of the traffic signals that have become defunct used to be maintained by Keltron and according to official sources, the agency has stalled the maintenance activities as their annual maintenance contract expired.
“The SCTL is in charge of the operations of the traffic signals now and because of the ongoing smart road works they are unable to fix them. We have been told that the signals will be operational by March end,” said the traffic official.
For laying cables, SCTL has dug up many roads severing the connections of the traffic signals. “We have constructed cross ducts every 500 metres on the city roads to avoid road cutting. But the SCTL has dug up the roads unnecessarily. They could have used the cross ducts for laying cables,” said Anil Kumar Pandala, former managing director of Trivandrum Road Development Corporation Ltd. TRDCL constructed the 42 km road network as part of the City Road Improvement project.
He said, “The city administration has collapsed and they are not taking action or intervening to resolve the issues. Motorists are clueless as there are no traffic diversion boards or warnings put up on the stretch where smart road works are progressing”.
An official of SCTL said they are trying to fix the signals and make them operational. “Some of the signals are not working properly and we will fix them soon,” the official said.
SCTL’s works to blame?
Signals at busy junctions such as Attakulangara, Killipalam, Neeramankara, Over Bridge and Kowdiar are lying defunct while those in other parts of the district are either erratic or non-functional owing to the ongoing smart road works by Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (SCTL)