Satwant Singh Rissam
Traffic signals are believed to be modern tool which help to regulate and streamline traffic in cities. Over past some years Jammu has seen tremendous rise in number of vehicles. The resultant of this rising number of vehicles was traffic jams, chaos on roads and even accidents. The problem of rising traffic seems alarming as earlier only ten thousand vehicles use to get registered at Jammu Regional Transport Office (RTO) every year but now number is said to be thirty thousand every year. Though Jammu Regional Transport Office (RTO) has shown tremendous rise in revenue but roads are not ready to tackle such a big number of vehicles. Hence a policy was conceived in year 2012 where it was decided to install traffic signals on Jammu roads to ensure smooth flow of traffic on roads. This policy was drafted in order to look after the future needs of the Jammu city because of rising traffic. But since the idea of putting traffic signals in Jammu was launched with big fanfare the celebrations did not last long. Within four years only the whole idea seems to have shattered as traffic signals at many locations in Jammu lie down in non functional conditions.
Initially these signals were believed to become saviour to people of Jammu who go out to drive and ride on their vehicles every day. But after passage of sometime it is giving an impression to be a futile attempt as traffic chaos still prevails in the city as in some of the areas traffic signals are non-functional now. The project to install traffic signals was done to cover areas where traffic chaos was becoming a norm. But surprisingly the areas which needed these signals most urgently are in same situation as were before their installation. The reason for it is that in some areas especially old city, rather than solving the problem of traffic jams these signals aggravated the problem. This all appears quite astonishing as why such situation was not prejudged in city areas before commissioning this project. The traffic density is so high in old city that we cannot even slow down the movement of vehicles for a while as it results into big traffic jams choking whole city. Hence as this situation started arising every day in old city because of these newly installed traffic signals it was decided to stop operating these signals in those areas. This all was done so soon that we cannot imagine why were these signals installed then at such points. The responsibility should have been fixed for the failure of such thing in such a short period resulting into loss of tax payer’s money. Another reason believed for stopping these signals in old city was the hindrance to VIP movement in old city. In effect these traffic signals are now acting as mere flashers at these sites. Now after stopping of these traffic signals at certain points pedestrians and motorists have started to suffer immensely. Most of the times warfare like conditions prevail at such intersection where motorists from all directions try to cross each other resulting into traffic jams.
There is another side to this story of non functional traffic signals which are crumbling with every passing day. As we know that some of the locations in Jammu have been declared to be ‘traffic signal free zone’ yet there are some locations which have traffic signals but appear to be ‘traffic signal free zone’. Many areas of the city where traffic signals are installed are suddenly on several days found to be defunct during day. Such situation shows that the purpose for which these traffic lights have been installed by the authorities is not fulfilled till today. These areas are suffering purely because of technical faults which are due to power supply fluctuations, puncturing of cables and many other defects. This situation has failed to draw the attention of the authorities adding to the woes of the people in Jammu. The major reason for non attention to this prevailing problem is said to be blame game which happens between police and municipality. Immediate steps always should be taken to repair these non-functional traffic signals but instead inter departmental fights are the reason because of which people suffer and face chaos on roads. At times these signals remain non functional for many weeks in prominent areas. The situation worsens when these traffic signals lie defunct in the name of various development works on the roads.
Interesting change nowadays is seen at some intersections as there is redeployment of traffic policemen at these points. However, it is pertinent to mention here that these deployed traffic personnel are now not able to handle heavy rush of vehicles during peak hours. The traffic goes out of order whenever there is minor stoppage in passing traffic at busy intersections. It is during peak hours we get to analyse how much the traffic gets affected by these out-of-order traffic lights. Authorities should admit that there are faults, from day one, in over all implementation of these traffic signals but such admission will be of no use as loss is done. This slowly deteriorating condition of traffic lights has reminded some residents of Jammu about the era of 70’s. It was during this era when for the first time traffic lights were installed in Jammu but became complete failure.
