Road traffic signals at several places in Nagpur - for instance, on the stretches of road from LIC Square to Pagalkhana Chowk - installed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation allegedly by flouting the guidelines of Indian Roads Congress (IRC) are causing traffic congestion. Interestingly, as many as nine traffic signals are functioning on this 2.5km stretch of road.
Motorists using the road told TOI that the time needed for driving from LIC Square to Pagalkhana Chowk has increased by 20 minutes due to these signals. Chaos prevails on this road as the signals are not synchronised.
Avinash Prabhune, who travels to Koradi thermal power station daily, claimed that the decision to install new signals was baseless and wondered what prompted the NMC to put them up for a distance of 2.5km.
According to him, the distance from LIC Square to Pagalkhana Chowk is about 3km. Ideally, one should cover this distance within 5 minutes with an average speed of 30 to 40km per hour. But if one has to wait for 40 seconds at each square on an average (more than 70 seconds in some cases), then his travel time will be 10 minutes.
At most of the signals motorists coming on the main road have to wait for long to get the green signal even if there is no traffic on the side roads. Mohit Sharma, a resident of Raj Nagar, said the signals have been installed without assessing the need and flouting the guidelines prescribed by IRC, the agency that makes guidelines for designing and installing traffic signals in the country.
"There seems to be a craze among authorities to put up signals without assessing traffic conditions, volume, needs and physical characteristics of the location. This is done in the guise of ensuring road safety," Sharma said.
IRC has prescribed the minimum vehicular and pedestrian volumes, traffic interruption, accident frequency and a combination of these required before a traffic signal is installed. The volume of intersecting traffic is the main factor.
As per IRC norms, the minimum traffic on the road in both directions should be an average of 800 vehicles per hour while 200 on the approach roads in one direction during eight hours of a working day. But NMC did not carry out a survey before installing these signals. A senior traffic cop said that the traffic volume had been ignored while installing new signals.
Prabhune has appealed to the civic authority to review its decision while installing traffic signals in any part of the city. "It is felt that it should concentrate on maintaining existing signals in a proper way than installing newer ones," he said.
Nasir Khan, traffic engineer, justified the decision of installing new signals in Sadar area. He said that the volume of traffic on this stretch has increased manifold and hence the signals were installed. Moreover, NMC had taken the traffic police into confidence while installing new signals on city roads, he added.
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