| Rs. 2.50 cr traffic lights project goes in drain, say police | | Rs 2.87 cr realized as fine from 141212 violators till July 13 | | Sumit Sharma
Jammu, Aug 24: Rs 2.50 cr project of Traffic Lights has gone in drain as most of the traffic lights are lying defunct , making commuting difficult in general and putting traffic police at tight corner in particular, according to a letter forwarded to the government by police department.
The police department wrote this to the government following increase in traffic violations and due to paucity of manpower.
Highly placed sources informed that in the letter which was shot to the government, JKP also mentioned that the traffic lights did not carry the cameras which further added to the woes of police, adding that acting on the complaint from police, Jammu Municipal Corporation has been asked to get the repair done besides installing cameras atop for proper surveillance.
Traffic lights were installed and inaugurated at 10 different tri-junctions in the city in August 2012 to ensure smooth regulation and management of traffic. Omax Company was given the contract for installation of traffic signals in Jammu under the supervision of Jammu Municipal Corporation at a cost of Rs. 2.50 crore. On the whole project, 60 junctions of Jammu were estimated to be covered for installing the signals in two phases, out of which 30 lights at 10 different locations were made operational in the first phase, including Satwari Chowk, Gangyal, Green Belt, Gole Market, Bikram Chowk, Jewel, Panama Chowk, Narwal, etc. besides other crossings of the city.
Meanwhile, by issuing as many as 14,1212 challans against traffic violators since July 13 this year, the city traffic police have added a whopping Rs 2 crore 8 lakh 61 thousand 5 hundred and 72 to the state exchequer. However, during the last year i,e 2013( right from Jan to Dec), the traffic police realized Rs 29757911 as revenue against challaning of 191796 vehicles.
The most of violators include those for not wearing seat belts, helmets, using mobile phone while driving, triple riding, wrong parking and disobeying traffic signals.
SP Traffic, Jammu,Pawan Parihar when contacted said that to curb the violation of traffic rules, instructions have been given to the subordinate staff to identify the grey areas and challan the violators. When asked about the traffic police's failure to regulate city traffic, he shifted the blame on defunct traffic lights.
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