Calcutta, July 9: Next time you are stuck in a traffic snarl, don’t start cursing.

Take it with a pinch of nostalgia.

Old, vehicle-packed Calcutta is set to flow with the times. To better manage the increasing number of cars on the city’s clogged streets, traffic authorities have decided to introduce light-operated signals and a video monitoring system directly controlled by the Lalbazar traffic headquarters.

“The 20 new light-operated signals will be operational by the end of this month in areas where traffic signals were earlier controlled manually. Thus we will have nearly 150 signal posts at vital crossings of the city with which we can control traffic effectively with deployment of less manpower,” said deputy commissioner, traffic, Arun Sharma.

Traffic officials said the decision to introduce automated signals was taken as more and more people are being caught violating manual signals.

“Often they say the manual signal is confusing and they fail to understand it, therefore mistakes are inevitable. But now they will not be able to violate it on that pretext anymore,” Sharma added.

The new system also means that violators who zoomed past a constable’s outstretched baton will find it tough to get away so easily in future.

With automated signals doing away with the need for manual control, the police have decided to deploy constables in zones where traffic violations are the highest.

“With constables busy in manning traffic, there was no other way for us to keep a tab on the violators. Now they (the constables) won’t have to worry about traffic as they used to earlier,” Sharma said.

From now on, their eyes will be on violators. Any transgression, and out will come the dreaded notepad.

The 20 new signals have been installed on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, B.K. Pal Avenue in north Calcutta and in the Port areas, both in the south and the north.

“Apart from these, we have recently installed cameras at nine congested crossings of the city, from Ultadanga to Rashbehari Avenue. These cameras are directly connected to our control room at Lalbazar, where officials watch the traffic movement and even arrange the signal sequence accordingly,” Sharma said.

The deputy commissioner also assured that he would look into complaints that timer signals at crossings like Manicktala, Rashbehari, Ultadanga and Girish Park were not functioning properly.

“Sometimes we have to ignore the timer signals to facilitate VIP movement. This might give an impression that they are not working,” he explained. “But I will check if there is any problem with the timers.”

But hi-tech signals alone could never solve the city’s traffic problems, police officials pointed out. The onus is also on those who are behind the wheel, they said. “We had on several instances said drivers are not properly trained,” Sharma added.