The Madras high court has directed the authorities concerned to regulate the traffic system in the city in accordance with traffic rules.
A division bench of Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam disposed of a PIL from N. Sahul Hameed that sought regulation of the traffic signal system in the city and said, “We do not find any reason to keep this matter pending.”
In the counter affidavit, it was stated that traffic signals were installed at 270 junctions in the city and because of various reasons such as burning of fuses, damage to cables caused by careless digging of roads by other government agencies, short circuits and power failures, about 10 per cent of the signals may not function partially or fully on a given day.
It was stated that the traffic signal system was under warranty and AMC and there was a separate traffic planning section that monitors the maintenance and repair of the signals.
It was also stated that the faults were set right then and there and that signals on arterial roads were paid special attention to to ensure that they function without any hiccup.
Even non-functioning signals at particular junctions have since been repaired and serviced and have now become functional.
It was also stated that despite the alarming factors such as enormous increase in vehicle population, digging of main arterial roads for implementation of Chennai Metro Rail, construction of elevated expressway, damage caused by rough vehicles during night hours, damage caused to signal cables because of digging of roads, the traffic signal system in Chennai was functioning very well.