COIMBATORE: Two days after TNIE reported that 30 modern traffic booths are lying unused due to lack of approval, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation on Sunday clarified that permission will be given for the modern booths installed by city traffic police if they do not feature advertisements and are approved by the highway departments concerned.
CCMC Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran told TNIE that the plan to operate modernized traffic booths and generate revenue from advertisements was discussed in the District’s Road Safety Committee meeting recently, and participants strongly opposed it. Also, he said police installed the booths without obtaining permission from the corporation and roads department.
Prabhakaran told TNIE “Before installing them, the competent authority should have applied for permission from the department that manages the roads. After that, a committee constituted by the Corporation which includes the Town Planning Officer, would approve them. However in this issue, without approval, police have installed modernized booths which feature advertisements. There are norms for allowing advertisement hoardings. Amid strong opposition from the road safety committee, it is not possible to grant permission for the booths,” he said.
A senior police officer said “As of now there is no hope for bringing the modernized traffic booths to use. A few of them have been dismantled while others remain as showpieces. Unless the civic body allows, this initiative would not work,”
As many as 30 booths, each costing around Rs 2 lakh, equipped with air conditioners, toilets and other facilities have been installed at major traffic intersections in the city over six months ago.
