Even as the Road Safety Week is underway and Bhubaneswar has been ranked first in the Smart City list, most of the electronic traffic signal posts in the city lie defunct for years.
School and college students are working as volunteers to create public awareness about road safety and traffic rules, but the traffic signals are not functioning in the city’s key locations.
At least 125 traffic posts are needed to control the vehicular movements in the places under the BMC. But there are only 57 traffic posts across the city, out of which 21 have electronic traffic signals. And most of the traffic signals are not functioning except at AG Square and two to three other locations.
The traffic lights are not functioning properly at Kalinga Hospital Square, Shailashree Vihar-Damana Chhak, Patia, 120 Battalion, Power House Square, PMG Square, Kalpana, Rupali, Ram Mandir and Masjid Square.
Surprisingly, there are no traffic signals at crowded Vani Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Jaydev Vihar, CRP and Fire Station Squares and traffic personnel and Home Guard staffs struggle to control the chaos caused by reckless two-wheeler riders, auto-rickshaws or private busses.
These personnel also hard pressed to control the vehicular movements at Khandagiri Square, where accidents occur regularly in the absence of digitised traffic signals.
It is needless to point out that the absence of the system is easily felt at Ravi Talkies, Sishu Bhawan, Capital Hospital, Red Cross, Shashtri Nagar, Nicco Park and Shriya Talkies Squares.
The traffic posts at several places are manned by Home Guards or traffic volunteers roped in by the Commissionerate police.
The situation has turned so bad that college students and volunteers are being deployed to manage the vehicular traffic.
If the electronic signals are provided at all the traffic posts in Bhubaneswar like cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the pressure could have been lessened on the traffic constables, and many accidents could have been averted, it is observed.