Hyderabad: Flickering lights throw traffic out of gear

Hyderabad: Several traffic signals are not functioning in the city. There are 221 junctions in the city, a large percentage of which are being manually operated owing to the ongoing Metro works. Commuters are confused with the signals at these junctions that are being operated by BEL.

Signals were found flickering erratically at some of the busiest junction in the city like Masab Tank crossroads, Tolichowki, Patny – Paradise (near state postal department) and Lakdi-ka-Pul.  

Timers have been fixed on the signals at all 221 traffic junctions in the city as part of the Hyderabad Traffic Integrated Management System. However, at 125 signals where Metro Rail works are on, the countdown timers have been switched off and they are being operated manually. A few traffic signals which are located very close to these 125 signals are also being manually operated.

Mr Prashanth Kumar, a state government employee and a resident of Red Hills said, “I was travelling on Shamshabad flyover towards Masab Tank crossroads to get to Red Hills; the traffic light was continuously flickering, the commuters at all four side didn’t have a clue…there was no traffic cop as it was past 10 pm. We were all confused, traffic piled up on all sides, there was no one to control the traffic. In such cases there are possibilities of accidents too.”

Mr A.V. Ranganath, DCP, Traffic-II, said, “This must be a technical glitch, I will direct my team to check on this. Few months ago timers at 20-25 signals had technical glitches, a request was made to Bharat Electronics Limited, which attended to it immediately.”

“The timers at traffic signals help people know when the red signal will turn green so that they can keep their engines switched off and cut vehicular emissions. With no timers, many keep their engines on and some two-wheeler drivers even keep revving in anticipation of the red signal turning green,”  Mr Laxman Rao of Vijay Nagar Colony added.