Traffic signals on verge of collapse

Traffic police manage the vehicles manually as most of the traffic signal lights are out of order in the port city. The photo was taken from Tigerpass road on Tuesday. Photo: STAR

The traffic police operate the traffic signals manually as the electronic traffic signalling system in the port city is on the verge of collapse.
It falls short of proper functioning, causing gridlock at different points in the city as well as sufferings to the city dwellers.
The traffic congestion sometimes leaves vehicular movement to a standstill for hours at different intersections due to bad traffic control system.
Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police Faruque Ahmed said managing the traffic manually is challenging with 360 personnel of the traffic police department. Moreover manual traffic control creates misunderstanding between motorists and traffic personnel. The work is also physically exhausting and tedious for traffic constables.
“After taking over as the deputy commissioner of traffic police department, I found electronic traffic system in disarray,” said Faruque, adding that electronic system is the basic requirement of traffic control and no traffic control plan can proceed without it.
He said they put up the issue of chaotic traffic situation to Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) at a meeting in February without any progress till date.
He said they have repaired the electronic system at Bahodderhat from traffic police fund to ease the congestion in the area.
The problem is mounting as 1,100 new vehicles add to the fleet a month running in the port city. The absence of buses for schools and lack of required number of roads in the city has further worsened the situation.
Image of the commercial city, venue of the two cricket matches of World Cup Cricket in February next year, will be tarnished when the people from other countries will arrive here due to the chaotic traffic control system, said Farque. He urged the CCC to complete the work before January 15, because the traffic constables need time to be used to the new system for smooth operation of traffic movement.
Confessing the repeated appeal of the traffic department, CCC Assistant Engineer Salim Uddin said due to time binding of ADP (annual development plan) and financial crisis, the renovation work would not be completed before January 11.
He said two-phased work of traffic signal renovation was squeezed into a civil infrastructure development project of the city corporation. Tk 1.5 crore renovation work was taken for the financial year 2009-10 and 2010-2011. The big chunk of the work -- laying cables connecting signal posts -- is almost over. Laying cables is done locally while controller machines have to be imported from Germany. Following the importing of machines and training on the operation of the machine in Germany, the controllers will be installed. These machines will maintain the traffic control centrally.