The Patiala municipal corporation (MC) and the traffic police seem to have turned a blind eye towards the dysfunctional traffic lights in major areas of the Royal City, complain commuters. To add to the troubles, no traffic police personnel have been deployed to usher the traffic in these places.
Traffic lights located on Bupindra road, Nabha diversion, near Gurudwara Dukh Niwaran Sahib, Lahori Gate, Truck Union, near Cafe Coffee Day at 22 Number Phatak, and Nabha Chungi are dysfunctional since past few months.
These defunct traffic lights have become a cause of headache for resident while commuting on these roads, which are usually busy. Absence of traffic personnel in these areas add to the chaos.
As per residents, it becomes difficult for them during peak hours and at night.
Rohit Kumar, a resident of Ajit Nagar, said, “These traffic lights are disfunctional due to poor maintenance. It seems that the departments concerned are not interested to get any repair work done.”
“We have approached the Patiala MC on multiple occasions to resolve the matter but nothing has been done so far,” he added.
Paramjeet Kaur, a resident of Nabha, said, “I travel to Patiala every day and there is not a single day when I don’t spot commuters fighting at Nabha diversion over crossing it. It is the need of the hour to repair these lights to avoid any untoward incident.”
{{/usCountry}}Paramjeet Kaur, a resident of Nabha, said, “I travel to Patiala every day and there is not a single day when I don’t spot commuters fighting at Nabha diversion over crossing it. It is the need of the hour to repair these lights to avoid any untoward incident.”
{{/usCountry}}Abhimanyu Goyal, a resident of Bharpur Garden Colony, said, “Apart from the dysfunctional traffic lights, there are some points where no traffic lights have been installed. The traffic is increasing rapidly in the city so more traffic lights need to be installed.”
Mayor Sanjeev Sharma Bittu said that the civic body has already floated tenders for installation of smart traffic lights on city roads.
“The present traffic light system has outlived itself and needs to be replaced with some modern infrastructure. Censor-based smart traffic lights are to be installed at 28 places,” he said.