Kantatoli Chowk, Ranchi. Monday, 9.30am.

Four constables ran out of breath trying to control the never-ending snarl of private cars, two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and buses. As the sea of vehicles kicked up dust and their deafening honks heated up commuter tempers on an otherwise cool day, the sound of the traffic department's much-touted public address system remained inconspicuous by its silence.

Half an hour later, with voice policing still MIA, another prominent intersection in the state capital - Sujata Chowk on Main Road - flawlessly imitated the Kantatoli chaos. At Albert Ekka Chowk, also on Main Road, it was terrible traffic triplet spawned by the same reason: mute public address system.

Incidentally, in September, the traffic department had launched with fanfare nine-to-nine voice policing at four intersections - Lalpur Chowk being the fourth - with the solitary objective of buffering bottlenecks, triggered by haphazard bus-auto halts and blatant disregard for signal, that make commuting on weekdays a nightmare in Ranchi.

After the initial success of the first phase, public address systems were also installed at a few other important crossings such as Ratu Road and Birsa Chowk. But, like all good things perish quickly in Jharkhand, this cost-effective means of traffic management too went mute in most places within weeks of debut.

Former Ranchi traffic SP Rajiv Ranjan, whose parented this voice-policing concept to tackle the perennial manpower crunch in the department, was transferred a month ago, but without replacement.

When confronted, traffic DSP Rajendra Choudhary first claimed that all public address systems were working fine. But, when he enquired at Albert Ekka Chowk and Lalpur on wireless around noon at the behest of this correspondent, he found both systems were silent.

The DSP then posed a power problem.

'You see, no traffic kiosk in Ranchi has independent electricity connection. So, we have to rely on nearby shops or alternative power. This is why the PA systems at Albert Ekka Chowk and Lalpur were not working on Sunday because shops were closed,' he said.

Reminded that today was Monday, he made a quick recovery: 'There is no power in that area now. Also, some rogue residents snap cables at night. I will ask my men to check what is wrong so that voice policing can resume soon,' he said, adding that manpower crunch and workload were challenges that did not allow them to look into these logistics issues on a day-to-day basis.

Do you buy the traffic department's excuse for non-functioning public address systems? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com