Commuters see red over defunct traffic lights

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 22

Installed over a year ago, the traffic lights at two intersections near Salem Tabri on the Old GT Road are of no use.

These traffic lights were installed after spending lakhs of rupees from the public exchequer for the smooth flow of traffic, but are not functional.

Commuters from internal areas face problem to cross the busiest road every day, as the traffic lights are not functional. However, some people believe that the traffic lights cause traffic jams on these intersections.

In 2016, the MC had started installing new traffic lights at important traffic bottlenecks in various areas, including these two intersections near Salem Tabri’s foot overbridge cut and petrol pump cut on the Old GT Road. Locals said these traffic lights were used only a few times since they were installed.

Gagandeep Singh Walia, a resident, said: “The traffic lights at these two intersections are not being used for a long time. The MC and the traffic police should conduct a survey of these intersections and take requisite measures to make these traffic lights functional. If there is no need of these lights, these should be shifted to other busy intersections where traffic lights are unavailable so that the public money spent on purchasing these lights should not go waste.”

A member of State Road Safety Council, Rahul Verma, said the traffic lights at the petrol pump cut in Salem Tabri must be made functional as it was a busy intersection. “I think there was no need of traffic lights at another nearest intersection. There are many other major intersections in the city, where traffic lights are unavailable. The authorities concerned should look into the matter,” he said.

MC’s Executive Engineer Balwinder Singh said: “People generally complain about traffic snarls at these intersections if traffic lights are used. However, we are trying to sort out the issue and traffic lights would be made functional soon.”