PMC, traffic Police to keep pedesterian signal timings to 15 seconds

The citizens were complaining about having very little time – as little as five seconds at many places – to cross the roads at signals

PUNE:Following the continuous follow up for pedestrian signal timings by citizens and various organisations, Pune Municipal Corporation and Traffic police have decided to keep or extend the timings up to 15 seconds for walkers crossing in the signals.

The PMC had installed new traffic signals all over city under the ‘Smart City’ project however the time kept for pedestrians to cross roads at these signals is very little – as little as five seconds at many places. (HT PHOTO)

The citizens were complaining about having very little time – as little as five seconds at many places – to cross the roads at signals. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune traffic police however initially responded with pointing fingers at each other instead of addressing the pedestrians’ woes.

On Tuesday, PMC electric department head Shrinivas Kandul said, “We have a detailed discussion with traffic police and PMC officials and the civic body and traffic police have decided to keep the pedestrian signal time for 15 seconds and it would get implemented in next few days. The instructions had been given to the ITMS project operatos and they would make necessary changes in the signal timinigs. Insted of five seconds, the pedestrian signal timing would be 15 seconds to cross the road.”

The PMC had installed new traffic signals all over city under the ‘Smart City’ project however the time kept for pedestrians to cross roads at these signals is very little – as little as five seconds at many places.

Activist Harshad Abhyankar of the ‘Save Pune Traffic Movement’ has been raising this issue for the past several days but both the PMC and Pune traffic police are busy passing the blame instead of rectifying the problem.

The extreamly brief timings were impossible for pedesterians to cross signals.

“New smart signals have been installed in the city but the time kept for pedestrians to cross the signals are very less. The agencies are treating pedestrians like dirt. We had even challenged officials from the PMC and traffic police to try and cross these roads in the given time. It is not possible to cross these signals in five second,” said.

The Save Pune Traffic Movement was raising this issue with both the PMC and traffic department and even file the application under Right to Information act but both the agencies were passing the blame game on each other. But now decided to take action on it and rectify the pedestrian signal timings.