The blinking traffic light at Dakbungalow Chowk on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, May 20: They blinked at last, though for only a while.

As motorists halted at the Dakbungalow roundabout today morning, following the directions of the traffic policeman, the “defunct” traffic signals suddenly came to life.

The blinking was haphazard no doubt, but the sight of the signal glowing red, yellow and green and the countdown timer showing the numbers was a pleasant one for many commuters.

Two days after The Telegraph reported that traffic signals installed in the state capital have been defunct for ages and Bengal-based Webel Mediatronics Limited, the company given the contract to maintain the signals, have expressed their helplessness in repairing them, things suddenly seem to back on the track of recovery.

Though senior police officers claimed to have “no idea” about who was trying to repair the signals, city superintendent of police-cum–traffic SP Shivdeep Lande told The Telegraph it “could be possible that representatives of the same company were now trying to rectify the faults in the system”.

“The police are contemplating to issue a showcause notice to the company, asking them to specify the reason behind them not respecting the Annual Maintenance Contract. They need to give specific answers or else the contract will be terminated for sure,” the officer told The Telegraph.

Asked if some repair work might have started today, Lande said the police had no specific information about it.

“It could be possible that representatives of the company, in a bid to save the contract, have started to mend the signals, making them operational again. The police will check this,” Lande added.

While the signals blinked for at least 10 to 15 minutes in the morning before coming to a stop, they again started to glow in the afternoon with an electrician checking the cables and trying to fix the problem.

The man, who identified himself as a local electrician, said: “We have received directions from the police to look into the problem and mend the signal. There are many faults in the wiring and many equipment are burnt at this moment. But the whole thing is not irreparable for sure. I had mended it but the underground cables perhaps suffered a short circuit, owing to which the disconnection happened again. I am checking out the mechanism at the moment.”

He said that the directions from the authorities included mending of all the 17 traffic signals in Patna.