Traffic signals play a major role in regulating vehicular traffic, especially in today’s Goa where road accidents have become the order of the day. Beginning today, The Navhind Times will throw light on the status of traffic lights in the state
AMRESH PARAB | NT
PANAJI
Traffic signals are considered vital for traffic regulation in the light of rising road fatalities. But for the last two years the state government has been sitting on a proposal for installing traffic signals at 53 locations.
Currently there are eight traffic signals in operation, all funded by private firms under corporate social responsibility, said a senior police officer.
The police said that two years back a proposal had been put forth to the state government on installing traffic signals at 53 locations, pedestrian crossing singles at 20 locations and warning blinkers at 73 locations. The proposal had sought installation of 662 CCTV cameras at 205 locations.
However, the proposal is yet to be acted upon, sources said.
The police had identified the locations after conducting a survey. Currently traffic signals are in operation at eight different locations in the state and the police are satisfied with the results.
“Traffic signals are must to regulate the traffic and the manpower required is very less. It also reduces the stress which traffic police personnel go through while manually handling the traffic,” the officer said.
The traffic signals are operational at Verna junction (industrial estate), and at Dabolim junction (near airport). The other traffic signals are at five different locations along the national highway-17 (now rechristened as NH 66) including at the O Coqueiro junction at Porvorim.
A senior police officer said the Goa traffic police took up the initiative to get private funding through CSR for installing traffic signals at certain locations. And for the Porvorim junction, the local MLA took up the initiative wherein traffic signals were installed by private firms under CSR.
Incidentally in 2015, some private companies had shown interest in a composite project of installing traffic signals along with CCTV cameras at 53 locations throughout the state for free of cost.
However, owing to certain technical aspects it did not materialise.
