Motorists and pedestrians in Patna will not have to depend on their instincts and the gestures of constables for crossing roads if the plan of police to revive the traffic signals in the city materialises.

Traffic signals at 17 roundabouts in the state capital have been defunct for years. Several controversies about their installation and maintenance have also come to the fore. The traffic police are now trying to get a private agency to re-install traffic signals on the city roads and maintain them as well.

Patna traffic superintendent of police (SP) Chandrika Prasad told The Telegraph: “We will start to search for a new and better agency next month with the aim of making the signals functional again.”

The new signals will not be automatic, said another traffic police officer.

“Traffic signals with electronic timers — that were installed earlier — have not worked very well in Patna. The flow of traffic here is uneven. The roads are also very narrow at many places. Also, the presence of a large number of rickshaws and hand-pulled carts slows down traffic,” the officer said.

He added: “The new signals would be operated manually. Calcutta has a similar system.”

The experience of installing traffic signals in Patna has not been favourable for the traffic police in the past. In 2005, Calcutta-based Webel Mediatronics was given the contract to install and maintain traffic signals at a cost of Rs 1.19 crore. According to the memorandum of understanding, the company had to set up 18 signals in Patna and one in Muzaffarpur district. The firm was supposed to provide a three-year warranty as well.

But the police claim that Webel Mediatronics just installed 17 traffic signals in Patna. The one in Muzaffarpur was never installed. Within six months, all the traffic signals went out of order and the company made no attempts to repair them.

Sources said despite the abysmal work record, the traffic police department signed an annual maintenance contract with the company on July 17, 2010. Former traffic SP Ajit Kumar Sinha had facilitated the contract for which Webel Mediatronics was again paid Rs 8.5 lakh.

Finally on November 11, 2011, the police lodged an FIR again the company at Gandhi Maidan police station for violation of the contract. The officer said: “The police have burnt their fingers earlier over the traffic lights. The same mistakes would not be repeated.”